Japan and its foreign relations

Under new Prime Minister Naoto Kan:

The Prime Minister is of the view that Japan-US alliance can be said to be an internationally shared asset, in that it supports not only the defence of Japan but also the stability and prosperity of Asia and the Pacific region.

Japan will strengthen relations with neighbouring countries within Asia in various fields such as the political, economic and cultural spheres and will work towards creating an East Asian community and shall deepen the mutually beneficial relationship with China based on common strategic interests, while forging a future-oriented partnership with the Republic of Korea (ROK).

He further believes in Japan-Russia relations focus on treating politics and economics as two wheels on the same axle and in this context work vigorously in order to resolve the biggest outstanding issue in Japan-Russia relations, namely, the issue of the Northern Territories and thereby conclude a peace treaty.

The other views of Prime Minister Kan are:

* Japan will enhance partnership still further with the countries of ASEAN, India and others.

In November, Prime Minister Kan will play an active role as chair of the APEC summit to be held in Yokohama. Japan will continue to move forward with Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and regional economic partnerships in an integral manner with domestic institutional reforms.

* Take the lead in international negotiations on climate change issues in cooperation with the United States, the EU and the Untied Nations in working towards COP16, so as to establish a fair and effective international framework in which all major economies participate.

* Advance international efforts to preserve biological diversity at COP6, to be held in Nagoya in October.

* Japan will stand at the forefront in exerting leadership to bring about a ‘world free of nuclear weapons,’ and will continue its reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan and its assistance to Africa in accordance with the pledges made at TICAD IV, while making all-out efforts for the achievement of the MDGs.

* Concerning North Korea, Japan will support the ROK resolutely in every way to deal with the inside not concerning the sinking of the vessel by North Korea, while seeking to normalize relations with North Korea, through a comprehensive resolution of the outstanding issues of concern with North Korea including the abduction, nuclear and missile issues and a settlement of the ‘unfortunate past.’

* Japan is working for a peaceful and diplomatic resolution with Iran, which continues to violate United Nations Security Council resolutions (concerning its nuclear program).

* Responding to the international security environment, Japan will review the National Defence Program Guidelines and the next Mid-Term Defence Program.

2010 NPT Review Conference

From May 3 to 28, 2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and the Final Document including the ‘Action Plan’ was adopted by the Conference. The key achievements at this conference include:

(1) The inclusion of a direct reference to achieving a world without nuclear weapons

(2) Reconfirmation of the ‘unequivocal undertaking’ on nuclear disarmament

(3) A request to nuclear-weapon states to report on their agreed nuclear disarmament undertakings to the Preparatory Committee in 2014

(4) Agreement on realistic steps on the implementation of the 1995 Resolution on the Middle East (e.g. endorsement for convening a conference in 2012).

Japan also emphasized concrete nuclear disarmament measures proposed in the joint working paper between Japan and Australia, promotion of the universalization of the Additional Protocol, resolution of nuclear issues of North Korea and Iran and the importance of international cooperation for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

In addition the country submitted four working papers respectively on practical nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation measures (joint proposal between Japan and Australia), strengthening of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) safeguards, technical cooperation activities of the IAEA and disarmament and non-proliferation education.

Japan’s efforts received support and appreciation from many countries, allowing these working papers to provide a foundation for the meetings’ discussions.

At the final stage of the conference under the initiative of Foreign Affairs Minister Katsuya Okada, together with the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Austria, Germany, the Republic of Korea and Disarmament and Arms Control Minister of New Zealand, Japan released the Minister’s urgent call for unity of the State Parties for achieving agreement at the conference.

Japan evaluates the consensus on the final document as follows:

a) Nuclear-weapon states and non-nuclear-weapon states, as well as developed and developing countries, have yet to overcome their disparate positions.

However, as all State Parties shared sense of crisis that this conference could not be allowed to end with the same result as 2005 and succeeded in making compromises in order to achieve agreement. There was great significance in saving the NPT regime, which was amidst crisis.

b) Reaching agreement on the ‘Action Plan’ for each of three pillars of the NPT (nuclear disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear energy) was a great achievement that surpassed the final document of 2000.

c) The content of the four working papers submitted by Japan was widely reflected in the final document, and they made an important contribution to reaching consensus.

d) The steady implementation of the Action Plan by each State Party based on multilateralism should contribute to strengthening of the international non-proliferation regime based on the NPT.

G8/G20 Summits

Prime Minister Naoto Kan attended the G8 Summit in Muskoka, Canada and G20 Summit in Toronto, Canada from June 25 to 27.

At the G8 Summit, views were exchanged on such topics as the global economy, development and peace and security.

During the dialogue on peace and security, Prime Minister Kan led a discussion on North Korean issues, particularly with regard to the recent sinking of a South Korean naval vessel, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of issuing a strong message seeking support for the Government of the Republic of Korea (ROK), condemning the attack by North Korea and demanding that North Korea refrain from committing any attacks or threatening hostilities against the ROK. These points were included in the declaration issue by the G8 leaders.

As a gathering of major countries, another key issue at the G8 was global poverty and development, in particular maternal and child health.

Prime Minister Kan expressed that Japan pays significant attention to maternal and child health and announced that Japan would provide additionally upto 50 billion Japanese yen or approximately 500 million US dollars in five years from 2011.

At the G20 Summit, leaders focused on the balance between economic growth and fiscal consolidation amidst the current global economy. Prime Minister Kan explained Japan’s recently formed New Growth Strategy and Fiscal Management Strategy, by which Japan aims to realize a “strong economy, robust public finances and strong social security system” altogether and these strategies were welcomed in the declaration by G20 leaders.

Also, the Prime Minister stressed that he would increase growth by expanding market size and employment in such sectors as nursing, medical care and childcare.

This was Prime Minister Kan’s debut in the diplomatic arena. Through the G8 and G20 summits and various bilateral meetings, the Prime Minister successfully achieved the results above, developed trust with other leaders and promoted the new administration’s domestic and foreign policies to the international community.

Second TICAD Ministerial Follow-up Meeting

On May 2 and 3, the Second Follow-Up meeting of Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) was held in Tanzania in order to review progress on the implementation of the Yokohama Action Plan (to double ODA to Africa and to support doubling Japanese private investment to Africa) adopted at TICAD IV in 2008.

Foreign Affairs Minster of Japan Katsuya Okada as a co-chair of the meeting, summarized the overall status of implementation of the Yokohama Action Plan (YAP) by stating that the significant progress has been achieved in every areas of YAP, however, some of the sectors, namely trade, investment and tourism required further efforts by all stakeholders, both in Japan and Africa.

He also expressed Japan’s determination to continuously carry out the commitments made at TICAD IV and announced Japan’s further assistance as follows:

a) To help recover from the economic crisis, Japan will execute infrastructure projects upto two billion US dollars over the next two years.

b) To achieve MDGs, Japan pledges assistance of approximately one billion US dollars for MDG related projects until the next Follow-up Meeting; and

c) To cope with climate change, Japan will intensify its assistance to Africa based on the Hatoyama Initiative and strengthen its cooperative relationship with Africa towards establishment of the next climate change framework.

At the end of the meeting, the participants issued the communique to convey further voice from Africa’s perspective to multiple important international fora scheduled to take place this year i.e. the G8 Summit, the G20 Summit, the UN MDG Summit, the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16), etc.

At the G8 Summit in June, Prime Minister Naoto Kan called for strengthened assistance by the international community as well as Africa’s own proactive efforts towards the achievement of the MDGs.

Japan will make its utmost efforts to have the ‘Voice of Africa’ complied in the communique and the holistic approach of the TICAD rooted in the concept of ‘human security’ reflected in the discussions of the UN MDGs Summit in September.