Lately, there have been many confrontations in public projects, such as siting of waste facilities, public utilities, and local developments. Confrontations occur not only between governments and citizens, but also between private institutions and local residents. In many cases, mutual trust among those stakeholders has been lost. Those confrontations and lack of trust may have resulted in significant social loss, because public service needed cannot be provided timely or in a satisfactory manner. In addition, lack of consensus amongst citizens regarding the introduction of advanced science and technology, such as life science and biotechnology, has also become a social and political issue.Such confrontation, we believe, is primarily caused due to lack of decision making process in which all stakeholders feel fully satisfied.

In order to solve the problem, we believe it is necessary to promote citizens' participation in public decision making process (Public Involvement) and also to encourage citizens' own initiatives in social and public issues (Public Initiative). In order to support such public movements, we believe it is also important to share the wisdom of successful consensus building (such as institutional mechanisms, techniques and innovative ideas) as a social asset (Public Incubation). These are the key to solve the problem of consensus building. Therefore, we establish an independent, non-profit organization called PI-Forum, whose primary mission is to promote above three conditions and to enhance social satisfaction as a whole.

The main goal of our activities is to promote social awareness of the importance of consensus building, and to share and provide wisdom of consensus building to the society as an independent institution.