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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