Speech Transcripts

It's a great pleasure and honor for me to be here at this very great institution, particularly in this 100th anniversary year. I have been a frequent visitor to Washington D.C. as a lecturer or participant to many symposiums, mainly on security issues. Particularly in the past three years, I came to this city often as I was the chair and deputy chair of three advisory panels to Prime Minister Abe on security as well as on historical issues. But I don't know why, I had never been here at Brookings. I am very sorry about that, and I have very much been looking forward to coming here as the president of Japan's Development Agency to discuss fragility and security in the world in such an influential and respected place.

Nowadays, development and security are inseparable. We should have more cooperation between the two areas, and that is probably why I was appointed to this post by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Needless to say, Japan is a global player, but Japan's foreign policy had been handicapped by two weak points. One was that Japan's security policy is not sufficiently self-reliant. We depend too much on other countries, mainly the United States. The second stems from the criticism from our neighboring countries, South Korea and China, on historical perception issues.

But in the past few years, we have made some improvements on these two points. Last September, the security-related legislation was adopted by the Parliament, and Prime Minister Abe issued the statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. He presented a very good statement that was very well received by most of the international community. Also toward the end of last year, there was an agreement between the governments of Japan and South Korea on the issue of "comfort women." So the weak points have been amended, if not solved completely.

The Abe administration has been proposing that Japan become a more proactive contributor to peace. This means that Japan should play a more important role in bringing stability and peace all over the world, and for that purpose, it is necessary for Japan to increase the role of the self-defense forces. But the role of self-defense forces is very much limited. The more important role should be shouldered by JICA by assisting other countries through non-military means. That's why I am very happy to be able to give my talk in my capacity today. Today, I would like to talk about the contributions to peace and stability JICA has made and will continue to make, particularly in conflict affected areas.

History of Japan's International Cooperation

As my expertise is in the history of modern Japan, let me start briefly with the history of Japan's international cooperation. During World War II, Japan fought against the United States and many other countries, causing terrible destruction and also suffering awful damage of its own before surrendering in 1945.

Fortunately, Japan was able to recover rather rapidly with the assistance from many countries and organizations, particularly from the United States. Above all, GARIOA and EROA - GARIOA stands for "Government Assistance and Relief In Occupied Area" and EROA means "Economic Rehabilitation in Occupied Area Fund" - provided a huge amount of money to Japan. Within 6 years, starting in 1946, a total of 1.8 billion dollars were disbursed. Of 1.8 billion dollars in aid, 1.3 billion were given as grants and not as a loan. This should not be forgotten, and many Japanese have not forgotten this important fact.

On the part of Japan, Japan's international cooperation started with the process of reparations. Around 1954, Japan started its reparation, first towards Burma. At the same time, Japan joined the Colombo Plan. The Colombo Plan is not as famous as it used to be, but it was proposed in 1950. The Colombo Plan was a collaborative organization that supported the economic development of Asia and the Pacific. It was the first international organization formed to help developing countries in the wake of World War II. Japan became a member of the Colombo Plan as early as 1954, only nine years after Japan surrendered. Since then, Japan has made a serious effort to regain the trust of the international community by implementing reparations and by assisting those poor countries in Asia.

Japan's international cooperation in Asia served to stabilize countries and help develop their economies, create jobs and reduce poverty. More specifically, it started in South Asia, but the main focus then moved to Southeast Asia and East Asia, including Northeast Asia. Though many countries were not particularly democratic, or rather undemocratic, most of the leaders in those countries were development oriented, partly to counter the threat of communism. They tried to focus on nation building by developing industry, by establishing infrastructure and by strengthening their education systems, processes to which Japan provided a lot of assistance.

I am not saying that Japan's assistance to East Asia countries was always successful, but as a whole, I think this has been a great success. You know as the book of Matthew says: "A tree is known by its fruit." Now look at the situation of East Asian countries. We have forgotten the fact that the level of standard of living in East Asian countries was about the same in the 1950s as in sub-Saharan countries. In the 1960s, the GDP per capita of East Asian countries was roughly the same at a level of 500 dollars. Now, East Asian countries' GDP per capita have reached 8,000 dollars, while that of sub-Saharan countries is 2,000 dollars. The most notable case is that of South Korea. While South Korea's per capita GDP was 130 dollars in 1966, two years ago it reached 28,000 dollars. That's why I say that the tree is known by its fruit, and I would say that Japan's assistance was, as a whole, a great success.

After that, in response to international appeals to allocate more resources to other areas, Japan began to expand its assistance to other regions, including South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia.

Human Security and Sustainable Development Goals

Now, Japan is providing a lot of assistance all over the world, and JICA has offices in more than 100 countries. Since the late 1990s, Japan has advocated for the protection of human security as the basic concept of Japan's assistance. JICA's cooperation is also rooted in this concept. Particularly after the end of the Cold War, many became unable to take care of the security of their people. Nowadays, it is widely recognized that the international community has to take care of individual security, rather than of national security alone. That's why we have started to promote this concept of human security.

But we can see that this is not a particularly new idea. The origin of this concept can be found in the UN charter, for example. In the first article, which stated the purpose of the United Nations, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted by Eleanor Roosevelt, we find a similar concept: that everyone has a right to live in dignity, and that everyone should be treated equally. This is also written in the preamble of Japan's constitution. It says: "We recognize that all people of the world have the right to live in peace, free from fear and want." I strongly support this section of the constitution, though I have some reservations in other parts.

To achieve these ideals, we must move beyond focusing only on directly fulfilling basic needs. We must also help all people live with dignity. This way of thinking has been consistent with the concept of Japan's aid for a long time. Though not always recognized, that explicit expression started in the late 1990s, and we can trace the origin of the concept to well before. Now, empowering the people is the main objective. This is another concept of Japan's assistance. We are just supporters, and what we can do is limited. The major players are the people of our partner countries. We have to create a partnership, respecting the ownership and the empowerment of those people: this is our basic policy.

Human security is a bit of an ambiguous concept, which is not understood very clearly by many countries of the United Nations. Recently, in 2012, however, the UN adopted a resolution about a definition of human security, saying that this was a right of the people, to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair. As you can see, the SDGs are quite similar to this definition, and we can say that the SDGs are an advanced and expanded version of human security.

Today, unfortunately, many people live in unstable environments and are facing enormous difficulties. As I said, Japan's approach is not to give charity but to support them to stand up on their own feet. For example, goal three of the SDGs is to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all, at all ages. These ideas constitute the core concept of human security.

Though the SDGs are very wide and complicated, we believe that health should be one of the core goals because life is most important for everyone. Specifically, we are focusing on the implementation of Universal Health Coverage. Prime Minister Abe contributed an article to the journal the Lancet on the importance of public health. We organized a very important international conference in December of last year and another conference in February in Tokyo on this issue. It is important to strengthen the resilience of the economy and the society as a whole by developing efficient health systems. In health, prevention is easier and less costly than curing. Therefore we should pay more attention to the establishment of a good system. Some of you may know one such system: the Maternal and Child Health handbook. This is a handbook, originally created in Japan, is given to a woman when she becomes pregnant, and she is expected to write every important record of any development, including when the baby was born, how heavy he or she was, and what kind of shots he or she received. It is most important that all records are included, and this is very basic to children's health. We are exporting this handbook to various countries. This has helped reduce child mortality quite a lot. Various countries, ranging from Thailand to Kenya, have partnered with us on this issue. Creating a system is very important. We have to fight against Ebola or Zika and on many other health threats. On the whole, however, it's much cheaper to prevent than to respond after a disease has spread.

Specific examples of human security protection and empowerment

JICA's mission is to provide aid that delivers the best possible benefits to partner countries through a combination of ODA loans, grant aid and technical cooperation. I would like to introduce to you two interesting cases. One is in South Sudan, and the other is in Mindanao in the Philippines.

South Sudan is a very new country which declared its independence in July 2011. Japan has been providing humanitarian development assistance but also playing an important role in nation building and working toward peace in South Sudan by sending self-defense forces within the framework of UN peacekeeping operations. Even before independence, JICA was involved in a range of sectors. We have extended assistance to improve roads, bridges and other basic infrastructure; to ensure steady supplies of drinking water; to strengthen food security and many other kinds of things. JICA has also worked to build local capacity. For instance, we support the Juba College of Nursing and Midwifery, which is the first school for registered nurses and midwives, established by the South Sudanese government.

I must acknowledge that there are limits to which development can facilitate the establishment of peace. Political compromises are first of all necessary, but at the same time, we have to support the lives of people.

I would like to introduce a very interesting case which took place recently. In January, we supported the first national sports tournament in South Sudan, which was named "National Unity Day." Many athletes got together in Juba, looking beyond their tribal differences as they engaged in athletic games. The event was successful beyond expectations, so much so that it moved some participants to tears. They were saying they had never dreamed that this day would come. Actually, the idea of the ancient Olympic Games had the same origin.

The next example I would like to talk about is the island of Mindanao, which I visited last month. In 2014, the Aquino administration signed a historic peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is seeking more autonomy from the central government. This agreement maps out the political process with establishing a new autonomous government this summer. Unfortunately, due to some incidents and the fact that the country is in an election year, the process has been suspended. While the formation of new autonomous government has been delayed, we have been supporting the process for more than 10 years.

Recently I attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Farm to Market Road connecting farms which are under the influence of Moro to local markets so that producers can bring their agricultural goods to the markets. I am very proud and appreciative that empowering people through these means has borne fruit over there. In a sense, the road that connected the farm and local markets is a kind of what I'd like to call a "peace dividend in advance." Despite the political standstill, it is important to empower people at the early stages of reconciliation so that they can foster a sense of hope. If people are able to hope for a better future, they will take a step forward and can start working towards lasting peace. I hope the next Philippines administration will provide continuous support to this process in Mindanao.

In addition to these two examples, I have to touch briefly on the Syrian crisis and the threat of the Islamic State. The situation is very terrible. We are not in a position to join militarily over there, but we are trying to do our best to support the refugees. As the Iraqi government gets back some cities from Daesh, we have to provide support to restore the living conditions in the affected area, such as water supply system, housing and so forth.

We are trying to do our best, and this reminds me of JICA's role. We have maintained very good relations with Syria before the crisis. We have sent many young volunteers in Syria. Our young volunteer program was created in the 1960s and was modeled after the Peace Corps in the United States. Recently, I met with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy in Tokyo and she showed great interest in cooperation between Japan's volunteers and the Peace Corps in the United States. That is a very good idea. We just promised to organize visit to the training center in Japan together in June.

Thoughts on the future

This year, 2016, is a very important year for Japan and JICA. Japan has been a non-permanent member of the Security Council since January this year. We are going to be participating in the World Humanitarian Summit in May in Istanbul, and Japan is going to host the G7 Summit meeting that month as well. In addition, the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, TICAD, will be held for the first time in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya in late August. Overall, Japan is in a position to take the lead to fight against the challenges of today. This is a very good opportunity for Japan to show that Japan is playing a more important role than before to promote peace and stability in the world. The world situation is very gloomy with a lot of terrorism, extreme ideas and a terrible gap between the rich and poor. On the other hand, however, we should not forget that we adopted two international cooperation milestones last year, namely the Sustainable Development Goals in New York in September and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in Paris in December. 2016 is the first year since having passed those two historical agreements. That's why I believe that Japan has a very important role to play in ensuring that international cooperation delivers tangible outcomes.

Thank you very much.