The symposium on “Cultural Diversity and Globalization: the Arab-Japanese Experience, a Cross-Regional Dialogue”, organized on 6 - 7 May 2004 at UNESCO in Paris with the purpose of promoting dialogue and cooperation between the Arab world and Japan, gave its participants an opportunity to lay the groundwork for thinking about the key concepts enshrined in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity adopted by the General Conference at its 31st session, on 2 November 2001.