The Spirit of Metta and Karuna as seen in Japan–Sri Lanka Diplomatic Relations
By Ven. Meegahathenne Chandasiri Thero, the Chief Sangha Nayaka of Sri Jayawardhana Pura – Official Capital of Sri Lanka. Kotte Chapter.
It is an honour to write a short note on the occasion of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Sri Lanka. I would like to take this opportunity to express the gratitude of Sri Lankan to the government of Japan and its people for their invaluable support for social and economic development in Sri Lanka made on the basis of the state principles founded on the past 70 years.
Though the diplomatic relations between the two countries officially started 70 years ago in 1952, people of the two countries, being Buddhists have cultivated compassionate and sympathetic attitudes mutually towards each other for more than a hundred years. Even the chance to initiate diplomatic relations between the two countries is said to have arisen as the result of the sympathetic attitude shown by the Sri Lankans towards the Japanese people who were badly stricken following the Second World War.
Sri Lanka and Japan are two Buddhist countries, and Buddhist philosophy has become the underlying guiding principle in the life of the people of these two countries, even though there are differences in culture. in Buddhism is a practice of Bodhisattvas, and it is a meditation that includes the aspiration that all living beings be happy.
This aspiration becomes a reality through the implementation of the four bases of hospitality namely, g e n e r o s i t y, charming speech, welfare activities, and impartiality or equality. It should be mentioned with gratitude that for the past 70 years, we, Sri Lankans have been immensely benefited socially and economically by Japan due to its exercise of the four bases of hospitality towards the Sri Lankan people. Maitri) is considered to be a state principle in Buddhism. It is a well- known fact that Emperor Asoka who realized the cruelty of the war by his own experience accepted Metta to be a state policy for the development of his empire.
The government of Japan too, after the devastation of the country by the war, followed a policy based on the concept of world peace for the development of the country. There is no war Loving- kindness opens the way for world peace. Japan has provided an example for the whole world that the development of a country can be achieved not by the war but by the state principle founded on loving- kindness which rejects violence.
Because of the economic policies bound up with loving- kindness, Japan was able not only to achieve its economic development but also to share its results with the rest of the world.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have paved the way for the arising of different welfare organizations in Sri Lanka through which the people of the two countries were able to build up their cordial relationship. The S r i Lanka- Nippon Education and Cultural Centre is one such welfare organization founded in 1986.
With the courtesy of the friendship of different organizations, institutions, and individuals in Japan, the Sri Lanka- Nippon Education and Cultural Centre is implementing island-wide welfare activities such as Japanese foster parent scholarship schemes, pre- schools, health care, library services, the study program of the Japanese language, Providing aids for the children who need the special care and so on. It is our sincere wish that the mutual friendship between Sri Lanka and Japan may remain a long time to come for the reciprocal benefit of the two countries.