Suu Kyi stresses loving-kindness to change society in Japan's Kyoto

Visiting Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi gave an academic speech at a university in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto on Monday, advocating the beginning of change in her country based on the Buddhist idea of " caring" for others.Suu Kyi was warmly cheered by students at the gate of Ryukoku University, which conferred on Suu Kyi an honorary doctorate as she visits Japan for the first time in 27 years at the invitation of the Japanese government.On the third day of her week-long stay in the country, she delivered a speech titled "the role of Buddhism in the process of social change, a message for Japanese students."She and her deceased husband had once studied Buddhism at the university, where they interacted with the institution's academic specialists in Buddhism and studied the university's Buddhist literature.At a large chapel hall, she addressed more than 500 hundred university students and professors, stressing that the best contribution Buddhism can make to the recent changes in Myanmar should be based not on violence or anger, but on loving-kindness.From the perspective of an opposition political leader, she noted that what people want to achieve is a peaceful means of practicing loving-kindness, she said.Concerning the future of her country, she stressed she is very optimistic because she believes that each people can obtain the quality to change society, adding that people have to be determined enough to bring about the changes they want.Aung San Suu Kyi stayed in Kyoto from 1985 to 1986 as a researcher at Kyoto University.