I started reading this book yesterday and it's got me thinking more about economics, financial literacy, language and higher education.

The conversations between Lau and Ikeda are well written and each has knowledge and insight on the topic they discuss. The tone of writing is simple and you'd feel like they were two people sitting and just talking about things that intrigued them.
I particularly found the third conversation on higher education to be quite interesting because of late there have been many satellite campuses being established in my country, Kenya, and education is a sector that needs reforms especially in embracing research, diversity in faculty and engaging students at the undergraduate level in critical thinking.

If you are interested in economics and insight on financial markets this book would be a good read in those first two discussions and then you get into the role of language and establishing a tradition in education and this book takes off.
I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for my views and I'd pretty much say that reading it was an experience I was very much open to.

Although I believe it could be interesting to listen live conversation of two highly educated men, such as professor Lawrence J. Lau and Daisaku Ikeida, I must admit that it was more difficult for me to keep my interest while I was reading it. The fact is that both gentlemen are well-informed in the topics they talk about, and they represent so many important ideas about the world we live in, starting with economics, education, international relations and peace. Yet, as we get a detailed introduction to their lives and movements, some ideas are only superficially processed. I was excited to get to know something more about fields like economics, about which I do not know much, but also to look at the views of both professors about topics I know something more. However, after overly detailed discussions on topics I was not overly interested in, my interest in what I was hoping to learn from this book gradually degraded. In the end, I did not get everything I expected from the book. Nevertheless, I believe that the relationship between professor Lau and professor Ikeida can be something we can all learn from, first of all, how friendly relations between two men may not change relations between their countries (China and Japan), but they can certainly be a good example that can be followed in higher political and social levels.