The Mathematics Certification Institute of Japan

International competition will continue taking various forms. What will the Japanese find value in and how will they compete with each other, in a period when most of them speak English and exchange information via mobile phone, TV, and the Internet? People continue striving to learn and acquire what is common in the international society. The international society is approaching abstraction in its original sense of the word, which is to find the commonality of things and pursue the common theory and universality. It also means to facilitate the understanding. In other words, people are starting to view the international society from mathematical perspective. We are fighting against the essential problems innate in human society. A large number of people in the world are battling with the food problem supporting a population of 6 billion, as well as global environmental issues for their survival. We will study, talk, and work in the office with a view to tackling these problems on an individual level. In the past, narrow-minded people void of the Internet studied, talked, and worked in order to go to war against neighboring countries and win a victory. We live in an age of self-reference, where we ourselves can observe the human being, understand its origin and its developmental mechanism from a scientific perspective, and control it in various ways if we wanted to. Humans fight against one another in a similar way that it fought against nature. Our society will soon encounter dangers incomparable to the age with various inconsistencies, when we exploited nature and brought about natural destruction. We intend to carry out activities to establish global society of lifelong study, in order to solve essential problems of such an age. The Mathematics Certification Institute of Japan regards mathematics as a key global culture, and hopes to solve potential fundamental problems through mathematics learners around the world. Mathematical ability enables information exchange. We plan to popularize Practical Mathematics Proficiency Test (Suken) globally in order to improve people's mathematical ability in the world. "Suken" is an index on studying mathematics. In 1990, few people in Japan studied mathematics after graduation. However, in 1999, 10 years after "Suken" was first conducted, the annual number of "Suken" examinees reached 100,000. This means that mathematics became an object of lifelong study in Japan earlier than in other countries, and proves that an age will come when mathematics will be a lifelong study. In 1997, we received an eager urge from Indonesia to introduce "Suken", and in the year 2000, The Mathematics Certification Institute of Korea will be inaugurated in South Korea. This suggests that "Suken" will become a motive to study mathematics, and a global lifelong study offering opportunity to learn mathematics on a global scale. It is extremely significant for mathematics to become an object of global lifelong study as a key global culture. If mathematics can become the object of study for fun, just like music and sports, and be discussed in living rooms, etc., it would indicate how high the general public's intellectual level is. Another example could be a living space where people in shirts and skirts with beautiful fractal design enjoy talking about the pattern. Mathematics needs to be a part of the intellectual basis for the 21st century. Corporate ethics cannot exist without basic ability. The strong ties between "safety" and a sense of ethics required for people living in highly information-oriented society is incomparable with that in the 20th century. People's ethics and social safety are as close as when people felt unified with nature. Improvement in mathematical ability will directly ensure security in the highly information-oriented society, thereby improve corporate ethics.