President’s Greeting for the Annual Conference

At its founding general meeting in December 2025, the Japan Society for Peace Education took a major step toward academically deepening “peace education” and expanding the network of practice and research. 

  The year 2025 marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, but with the Russia-Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict still ongoing, the world remains in turmoil. As we entered 2026, the war with has also begun. Under these circumstances, traditional peace education, which focuses solely on passing down Japan’s wartime experiences, is not necessarily sufficient. How can we create peace in this chaotic world today? This Society was established as a new platform to explore the theory and practice of achieving this goal. 

  The theme of the “1st Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Peace Education,” to be held on September 21, 2026, is “Encountering, Connecting, and Building Peace Education Today.” At this conference, we will redefine peace education not merely as “education about peace”—the transmission of knowledge—but as “education for peace,” which breaks the cycle of violence and nurtures the sensitivity and intelligence necessary to live alongside diverse others. 

  In the future of peace education, who (or what) should we encounter, and how should we connect with people and things in the classroom and our communities? Through these connections and dialogue, we believe we can collectively build a new vision of peace education befitting modern society. 

  It is our sincere wish that Hiroshima, the birthplace of peace education in Japan, becomes a space where practitioners and researchers can transcend their respective roles and engage in meaningful dialogue about how peace can be built through education. We sincerely look forward to the participation of many practitioners and researchers interested in peace education. 

                 March 23, 2026 

                                                          President of the Japan Peace Education Academic Society 

Murakami Toshifumi