2009 President Hiroshi Naitou Greetings

Our slogan for 2009: Bringing smiles to our community Nurturing the business leaders of the future with a focus on achieving personal benefit by benefiting others

　The Gifu Junior Chamber, Inc. is an organization for young business people in Gifu City and surrounding areas. We aim to create a vibrant and prosperous society through activities focusing on both personal and community development. Our members seek to improve themselves through planning and implementing a wide range of projects that contribute to the development of society as a whole. These activities allow our members to nurture the qualities that are essential for young business people.

　The Junior Chamber is now in its 58th year and we are entering the third year of the “Active Compact City Gifu” campaign which reflects our vision of a peaceful, dynamic city where people support each other. We believe that we can increase the effectiveness of our activities by utilizing the combined strengths of members of the public, corporations and government authorities in Gifu. We aim to interact and work together with even more members of our community to maximize the vitality of our city as expressed by our slogan “Spiral Up Gifu Power!” Through these and other specific initiatives, we aim to achieve our vision by implementing programs that ensure the healthy mental and physical development of youth and nurture the business leaders of the future who will become the driving force behind our dynamic city.

　The Japanese economy is entering a phase of unprecedented hardship and many people are concerned about the future due to the global economic slowdown, rising prices, increasing national debt and the pension issue. Faced with these economic and psychological pressures, many people tend to focus on themselves and forget what is really important in life. In response, we have reassessed the purpose of our organization and are carrying out initiatives based on our belief that personal benefit can only be attained by benefiting others. This philosophy is known as “jiri rita enman” (achieving personal benefit by benefiting others) and it is the fundamental concept behind our personal and community development activities. Our community-building activities incorporate both mid- and long-term goals to nurture the business leaders of the future who will create a vibrant and prosperous future for our city.

　We believe that our happiness and personal growth are strongly linked to the smiles we see on the faces of people involved in our activities and every member of our community. As initiators of change, we will continue to respond to new challenges in the future.

Thank you for your support of the Gifu Junior Chamber, Inc. and we appreciate your continued cooperation, both now and in the future.