After graduating from Keio University, Yukihisa joined an MRA international group “Song of Asia” and traveled with it to 14 countries in Europe, North America and the Pacific from 1975 to 1977. The group consisted of about 50 young people from 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific. He was shocked, he recalls, to discover how ignorant he had been about the wrongs done by Japan to those countries in Asia during the War. He apologised to young people he met in Asia for what his father’s generation had done and also his apathy to it. He did this because he felt that in order to build a better future it was essential to rectify the past.
In 1979 he helped Mrs. Yukika Sohma, a daughter of Diet (Parliament) member Yukio Ozaki who had opposed the Pacific War, to establish Japan’s first refugee support NGO, the Association for Aid and Relief (AAR). In 1980 he launched a first AAR project for Cambodian refugees in Thailand. This camp was run by a former member of Song of Asia, Son Soubert, a son of former Cambodian Prime Minister Son Sann. He also launched AAR projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The AAR now helps Ukrainian refugees in Ukraine, Moldova and Japan.
In 1985 Frederik Philips, former CEO of Philips Electronics in the Netherlands sent him a Dutch newspaper article with a headline “Deceptive Smile of Japan”. It stated “protectionism, dumping, theft, and intimidation, are all incorporated in Japan’s strategy aiming at destroying the electronics industry in Europe and the United States.” Philips urged Yukihisa to help find Japanese business leaders to have honest dialogue with European and American counterparts. This was how the Caux Round Table (CRT) was launched. He acted as the Japanese coordinator of it till 1996.
In 1996, he initiated “An Agenda for Reconciliation” conference at Caux in order to bring reconciliation across the world. Yukihisa was a member of Caux Foundation from 1994 to 1996.
He was elected to be a Member of the Japanese Diet in 1996 and served in both Lower and Upper Houses for nearly 18 years. He worked closely with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata, both of whom had visit Caux a few times.
In the Diet, he founded a member’s group to support the World Conference for Religion and Peace (WCRP, or Religion for Peace). He worked closely with William Vendley, the Secretary General of the WCRP who was one of the writers of “Religion, the missing dimension of statecraft” in confidence building round tables amongst religious leaders in conflicts including Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Ethiopia, and Syria.
He became Chairman of the International IC (IofC) Association of Japan in March 2022.
