10/01/2015

Peripheral Proactive Pacifism

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated in general debate of annual General Assembly of United Nations how Japan had been contributing maintenance of peace and security in the world. So, what is he doing in the future? On a major stream of refugees from Middle East to Europe, he only offered financial support to related countries, putting direct contribution behind. What Japan needs to uphold is not proactive pacifism, a concept to justify political agenda to take back pre-war regime, but actual framework to eliminate the network of extremism.

True intention of Japan to appeal its contribution to international peace and security is apparently to obtain a ticket to be one of the permanent members of U.N. Security Council, regardless a fatal antagonism against United Nations seventy years ago. “The Japanese are a people who view, and will continue to view, the two letters ‘UN’ as having a certain glimmer,” told Abe in his speech. The statement was followed by these words; “Holding aloft the flag of ‘Proactive Contributor to Peace based on the principle of international cooperation,’ Japan is determined to undertake Security Council reform in order to transform the United Nations into a body appropriate for the 21st century, and then, as a permanent member of the Security Council, carry out its responsibilities in making still greater contributions towards world peace and prosperity.” For Abe, U.N. looks like inappropriate for the 21st century.

To implement what he called proactive pacifism, Abe offered $810 million of assistance for refugees and internally displaced persons in Iraq and Syria as tripled number from the amount last year. To Lebanon, he implemented $2 million in new assistance measures, which included collaboration between development and humanitarian actors. Abe also pledged $2.5 million of humanitarian assistance to Serbia and Macedonia, where great number of refugees and migrants are flowing in.

However, Abe did not refer to acceptance of refugees to Japan itself. According to a report of Mainichi Shimbun, Japanese government approved only 11 applicants for refugees out of 5,000. Ratio of approving refugee was less than 1%. Because Japanese government so strictly interpreted “possibility of persecution” as a definition of refugee that it could not directly contribute international effort to help displaced people.


Abe reiterates that he hopes Japan to bloom in the center of the world. In which international issue, anyway, is Japan located in the center of the world? If it were nothing more than buying status of permanent membership of Security Council, the Japanese people would not be proud of the concept.

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