New Year Greeting
Message from President
January, 2023
MAKIGUCHI Masahiro
President
Public Relations Society of Japan (PRSJ)
It is my great pleasure to extend these greetings after having assumed the position of president of the Public Relations Society of Japan (PRSJ).
I am pleased to wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year.
I traveled from Tokyo to Kyushu to visit my hometown at the end of last year. I rode the Shinkansen bullet train on December 29, reportedly the peak day for such travel. As you would expect, the train was overflowing during my entire journey. Whenever a reserved seat was vacated along the way, it was immediately occupied by another passenger. I was impressed by the excellence of the Shinkansen seat-reservation system.
Given the situation, the people sitting around us were quite diverse, including families, business travelers and young people going back to their regional hometowns. And since passengers were constantly coming and going, many people were standing alongside strangers.
In the midst of all this, I recalled an ancient poem, written by Semimaru in the Ogura Anthology of One Hundred Waka poems:
“So this is the place! The crowds, coming, going, meeting, parting;
friends, strangers, known, unknown—The Osaka .”
Long ago, people lived this way down through the ages, taking in new stimuli apart from their daily lives and using the process to expand their imaginations. It is similar to today, when passerby look at each other and overhear each other’s conversations.
From that perspective, I believe I can say that the many strangers packed inside my train were not suffering from the experience.
The public relations work we practice is underpinned by a foundation of people, indeed each and every human being. Our work connects these people to each other, so our purpose is to enhance relationships between people and sublimate them to form even deeper bonds. The process of people encountering, connecting and interacting with each other has much in common with what we do in public relations.
Unlike the recent past, this new year has the possibility of bringing more people into contact with each other, and creating relationships of a new nature. In such an environment, it is inevitable to expect the role of public relations to change as well.
In 2023, PRSJ will continue to strive to meet the expectations of its many stakeholders, for which your continued support would be greatly appreciated.
In closing, I wish to express how much I look forward to working with everyone again this year.
