After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 precipitated the end of the cold war, the two theses of "the end of history" and "the clash of civilizations" emerged. The latter held that in place of the clash of East-bloc and West-bloc ideologies that had characterized the cold-war international community, a clash of civilizations, especially of Western Christian civilization and Islamic civilization, was inevitable. The terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, confronted the world, which had been pressing ahead with economic growth and market liberalization as Western-style democracy spread as if to confirm the "end of history" thesis, with the existence of an ideological confrontation of civilizations different from the cold-war East-West confrontation, and with the fact of clashes generated by religions, to which the world had been all too oblivious.
This project was inaugurated against that background, with the aim of helping fill the lacuna in mutual understanding brought about by civilizational, cultural, and religious differences. In recognition of the importance of knowing more about India, which is expected to make great strides in the international arena both economically and politically, in the first year five seminars were held in Tokyo focusing on Hinduism, which is espoused by some 80% of India's population, and Islam, which has attracted worldwide attention in a variety of ways in recent years. In the second year, building on the outcomes of the first year's seminars, seminars were held in India and Iran.
This year, the project's final year, while further expanding the network of opinion leaders built up in the first two years, the project worked to reinforce knowledge of the views of religion and civilization of the Hindu sphere and the Islamic world. At the seminar "Civilizational Dialogue: Science, Technology, and Civilization," held in Tokyo in September 2004, researchers from China, India, and Pakistan reported on the development of biotechnology and concomitant ethical issues and provided a forum for discussion and debate. Another seminar, "The Role of Religion in Iran and Japan," cosponsored by the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, was held in Tehran in November that year. This was a forum for dialogue among distinguished Iranian and Japanese specialists in religion, sociology, and philosophy.
Another initiative in civilizational dialogue was a conference of specialists on the theme "Changing Dynamism of Indian Religion: Dialogue between India and Japan," held in Varanasi (Benares) in February 2005 and attended by 13 specialists on Hindu and Islamic studies from India and 4 specialists from Japan in religion, sociology, and physics. The project also supported scientific exchange with Islamic countries by sending two Japanese specialists to an international conference in Kuala Lumpur sponsored by the Islamic Academy of Sciences of Jordan in March that year.
Through these activities, the project helped promote the coexistence of pluralistic values and intellectual exchange and mutual understanding in Asia.