In a speech delivered at the recent Sophia Symposium in Tokyo, Fr Mark Raper SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific, argued for a view of education as “formation for decision and for action: education of the head, the heart and the hands”.
Advocating a pedagogy in which reflection is central, Fr Mark sees the role of education as leading students to love the world, to assume responsibility for it, and to acquire tools in order to renew it.
As such, universities need to go beyond the core business of providing education in competence and critical thinking.
In March this year, world attention was focused on Japan. The tsunami that took some 20,000 lives in the north-east of Japan and destroyed many towns reminded us how fragile our environment is. Release of radiation from the nuclear reactors at Fukushima emphasised human capacity to destroy the environment.
In recent months our region has been horrified by images of destruction and heart-rending suffering caused by floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. 
When the rector of the Jesuit scholasticate in Tokyo, Fr Juan Haidar, asked me whether I was interested in volunteering for relief efforts of Caritas Japan, I initially hesitated since my command of the Japanese language is not good. Yet I felt moved to respond despite this disability and despite the risks.
