Humankind faces serious,
unprecedented crises. Now is the time for us to stand
united beneath the flag of the United Nations to confront
those crises together. Japan is resolved to continue to
take on great responsibility, working hand in hand with
the international community.
The Government of Japan is expending its best
possible efforts in the fight against the Ebola virus.
The international community should come together
to address that crisis, which directly affects the peace
and security of Africa. In that regard, Japan, as one
of its sponsors, has strongly supported the adoption
of Security Council resolution 2177 (2014). Japan has
also supported the initiative of Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon, and His Excellency Mr. Sam Kahamba
Kutesa, President of the General Assembly, to establish
the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency
Response.
At the fifth Tokyo International Conference on
African Development, held in Japan in the past year,
the Government of Japan announced that it would set
aside $500 million to address health issues in Africa
and launch training programmes for some 120,000
health and medical-service providers. As a response to
the Ebola outbreak, we have sent highly knowledgeable
and experienced Japanese experts, as members of
World Health Organization missions. We have also
extended a total of $5 million in financial assistance
and will provide $500,000 worth of personal protective
equipment for health-care workers. Furthermore,
we pledge to extend additional assistance totaling
$40 million in future. We continue to be prepared to
take any other measures, including the possibility of
sending more experts to Africa and sharing a potentially
promising drug developed by Japan’s Toyama Chemical
Company and Fujifilm Holdings Corporation, which
could be effective in the post-exposure phase of Ebola.
The Middle East is in a state of unrest. In particular,
Japan regards the activities of the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant — which extends across national borders
and has unilaterally declared the establishment of a so-
called state — as a serious threat to international order.
What is important now is to prevent extremism from
taking root, while responding swiftly to the region’s
humanitarian crises. To assist in that, Japan will provide
$50 million of emergency assistance right away.
Placing great importance on the stability of
Ukraine, in March Japan swiftly announced economic
assistance of up to $1.5 billion, which is now being
implemented. We are also preparing new assistance
towards reconstruction of the eastern part of Ukraine.
Next year will be a momentous one for the United
Nations. We will celebrate its seventieth anniversary.
At the time the United Nations was founded, Japan
was recovering from having been reduced to ashes.
Since then, Japan has never for a moment forgotten the
horrors of war. It set out on its post-war path abhorring
the atrocities of a war that brought tragedy to innocent
people both at home and in other nations and renewing
its pledge towards peace. We have made a wholehearted
commitment to shoulder United Nations responsibilities
at home and abroad.
Japan’s future lies in a straight extension of our
history over the past 70 years. Our pledge to never wage
war will be handed down and fostered by the Japanese
people for generations to come. Peace will take root only
when conflicts are deprived of places to reside within
our hearts and our way of life. That is precisely why
Japan is working to continue taking action at the grass-
roots level around the world. Japan has been, is now
and will continue to be a force providing momentum for
proactive contributions to peace.
Moreover, I wish to state and to pledge, first of all,
that Japan is a nation that has worked to eliminate the
war culture from people’s hearts, and it will spare no
effort in continuing to do so. As early as the mid-1980s,
Japan launched cooperation in Gaza to foster human
resources. A total of more than 400 administrative
officials and technical experts have come to Japan to
receive intensive training. One of them is Mr. Najjar
Osama, a young man serving as an official with the
Palestinian Energy and Natural Resources Authority.
He said:
“Gaza has no natural resources whatsoever.
The only thing we have is people, a situation the
same as Japan’s. What I learned in Japan is the
spirit of never, ever giving up.”
After being educated in Japan for a month, Najjar
Osama brought solar-power technology back to his
hometown, to be attached to the facility in greatest need
of a stand-alone power system. The equipment that he
and his colleagues introduced to the largest hospital
in the Gaza Strip has endured the unrest and kept the
lights on in the hospital’s emergency room.
It is perhaps more than just a coincidence that the
Somalia story I wish to tell also relates to lighting.
The most important thing for Hamidah Hassan — a
girl 10 years of age, living in the camps for internally
displaced persons in Mogadishu — was lighting to
illuminate the camp’s tents at night. A lit tent acts as
a deterrent to sexual violence. Over the past two years,
Japan has distributed to internally displaced persons,
including young girls such as Hamidah, some 2,500
small lanterns, made by Panasonic, that bank electricity
generated from sunlight during the day and convert it
to lamplight at night. Hamidah is now working hard,
dreaming that one day she will become a doctor.
We must continue to clear away anxiety and fear
from people’s hearts and cull any shoots of hatred.
Japan and the Japanese people will continue to do
our best to offer our own willingness and capacity,
knowledge and experience, in order to make that a
reality. First and foremost, we will continue to assist
in enhancing education, which will form the basis of
economic growth for those who need it, from primary
education to vocational training. Our aim, always, is
to internalize the joy of work in people’s nature. We
hope for people to keenly realize that the sweat brought
about by their labour is an investment in the future.
Expanding roads, ports and the increasingly
connected power grids, together with effective
governance that is fully in step with those improvements,
will help to bring about an affluent and peaceful society
that values human rights. When that concept receives
broad-based support, people become the owners of
their society in the truest sense of the word. To expand
that kind of society from a point to a line, and from a
line to a plane, Japan has always sought foundations of
peace. We have always focused our official development
assistance philosophy on that approach.
The banner of a proactive contribution to peace
borne by the Japanese Government is a flag planted
atop the natural development of conviction and self-
confidence that we have acquired through many years
of promoting human security, that is, working as hard
as we could for the development of a society that places
people front and centre. We will carry on with our work,
hoping to create, in time, a fair and just society that
places human beings front and centre and a democracy
that values human rights.
Seventy years ago, the United Nations proclaimed
its determination “to save succeeding generations from
the scourge of war” and to “practice tolerance”. The
United Nations must not depart from those ideals. It
is with exactly that determination that Japan aspires to
join the Security Council once again as a non-permanent
member next year, marking the seventieth year since
the start of the United Nations.
Over the 58 long years since Japan became a
Member of the United Nations in 1956, as its eightieth
Member, Japan has worked tirelessly for the causes of
the United Nations. We believe that our efforts have
been second to none. It is my wish, with the seventieth
anniversary as a turning point, that countries sharing
the same aims can all work together to finally resolve
the long-standing issue of the reform of the United
Nations in a way that reflects the realities of the twenty-
first century. In that context, Japan seeks to become a
permanent member of the Security Council and to take
on an appropriate role that the status requires.
It was on the same occasion last year that I spoke
of the significance and importance of enhancing the
power of women and appealed for us to create a society
in which women shine (see A/68/PV.12). Japan has now
begun to work towards resolving the numerous issues
we face, together with private industries, in order to
increase women’s participation in society as soon as
possible. We must foster environments in which it is
possible to balance child care and nursing care on the
one hand and work on the other. In addition, eliminating
biases about the roles of women that still exist in society
will be basic, more so than anything else.
We have just held a large-scale international
conference with an aim of promoting the dynamic
participation of women. With an eye set on economic
development and the resolution of global issues,
about 100 leaders from all sectors of society from
around the world sent out a message to the world of
their commitment to bringing the power of women to
fruition. In less than a year, the empowerment of women
has become a guiding principle that has driven Japan’s
policies both domestically and overseas. Japan has
focused on advancing the status of girls and mothers
in Africa, a region that receives emphasis within our
foreign aid.
The twentieth century had a history of profound
harm to women’s honour and dignity when conflicts
broke out. Around the globe, we still find abhorrent
circumstances in which women are denied access
to such basic services as medical care and education
merely because they were born female, thereby
depriving them of opportunities to become self-reliant.
Japan seeks to be a country that walks alongside such
women throughout the world. We intend to encourage
and support, throughout the world, the self-reliance of
women whose hearts have suffered grievous harm.
We intend to make the twenty-first century a
world without human rights violations against women.
Japan will stand at the fore and lead the international
community in eliminating sexual violence during
conflicts. Therein lies the reason for Japan to reinforce
its cooperation with Ms. Zainab Bangura’s Office of
the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on
Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Fundamental rights such as education and health
must be ensured everywhere throughout the world. It is
necessary for the United Nations and, indeed, the world
to come together as one to take action so that girls
and boys can attend school equally and that expectant
mothers can receive medical care with peace of mind.
Moreover, in order for women to lead lives full of pride
and hope, I consider it essential to develop their ability
to be economically self-reliant, above all else. I do not
have the slightest doubt that the creation of a society
in which women shine holds the key to changing the
whole of society.
Last year I pledged in my address here, before
the General Assembly, that Japan would implement
assistance in excess of $3 billion over three years,
aimed chiefly at advancing the status of women. The
amount already implemented over the past year is
$1.8 billion, more than half the amount pledged. I also
stated Japan respected the activities of UN-Women,
which is responsible for women’s issues within the
United Nations, and that we intended to become one
of its leading contributors and thus a model country
in that area. Over the past year, Japan increased its
contributions to UN-Women fivefold, and in the future
we will further increase the number of projects we
support. We are also very pleased that next year UN-
Women will open its Tokyo office. I expect that Japan
will further enhance its coordination with the United
Nations through that new office.
As we draw up the post-2015 development agenda,
Japan will continue to be as strongly involved as it
has been to date. However, I strongly urge that if we
are to truly attain inclusiveness, sustainability and
resilience, as put forth in that agenda, then protection
and empowerment of the vulnerable, irrespective of
race, gender, or age, is important.
This year Japan marks the sixtieth anniversary
of the start of its official development assistance
(ODA). Having learned from the determination of
our predecessors, who began working to extend ODA
a mere nine years after suffering total devastation in
war, the Government of Japan is now in the process of
establishing new guiding principles for our ODA. We
intend to once more emphasize as priorities objectives
such as high-quality economic growth, ensuring rule of
law and realizing a peaceful and stable society.
The objectives that Japan has continuously targeted
through its ODA over those 60 years will not change
in the slightest. There will be no change in our deeply
rooted approach in which the most important thing in the
fight against poverty is to cultivate a sense of ownership
among the people concerned and to encourage self-help
efforts. Nor will there be any changes in our efforts to
fully ensure human security. Moreover, as we pursue
enhancing women’s empowerment as the leverage
point, I consider the attainment of our goals to be that
much nearer.
Over the past 20 years Japan has sent about
9,700 people on 13 United Nations peacekeeping
operations. In the 10 years since the establishment of
the Peacebuilding Commission, Japan’s contributions
to the Peacebuilding Fund have surpassed $40 million.
In the future, we intend to cultivate still further our
human resources in terms of both quantity and quality,
to contribute to the area of peacebuilding.
As the only country ever to have suffered the
devastation of atomic bombings during wartime, Japan
is prepared to lead discussions in the Review Conference
of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation
of Nuclear Weapons to be convened next year — the
seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombings.
With regard to North Korea, Japan will work
in coordination with relevant countries towards the
comprehensive resolution of outstanding issues,
including abduction and nuclear and missile issues.
Japan has been among the biggest beneficiaries of
the United Nations. Going forward, we will work harder
than ever to bring about realization of the principles
set forth by the United Nations. Japan is a nation that
implements its pledges without fail. With that, I will
end my discussion.