Moon was the inspiration of the late highly respected Japanese scientist Eizaburo Nishibori, who was a major proponent for the current impetus on the tunnel project.[1] He became motivated upon hearing Reverend Sun Myung Moon's proposal for this tunnel in 1981 at the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences meeting in Seoul, South Korea. Nishibori subsequently helped organized the Japan–Korea Tunnel Research Institute which has performed major research and assisted in the selection of the three new proposed tunnel routes.[5]