Position paper - Japan

[Radha Molek]

Position paper from Japan

Human Rights Education

Japan has always responded positively to the efforts of the United Nations to promote Human Rights, starting from the UN Decade for Human Rights Education and has been very successful in achieving the goals that were set at the beginning of it's campaigns and has always taken all criticism into account when forming new plans for future education. It has also integrated all of the six signed treaties regarding Human Rights into it's national law. From a Japanese view, Human rights education should be carried out at least on a regional, it not on a national level, since it is very important to be aware of all cultural properties of a certain area, in order to determine which of the rights would require the most emphasis, publicity and effort to be recognised by a certain group of people.
In the case of the Caucas region, Japan is very much inclined towards a peaceful resolution of all existing conlicts after the war while respecting Georgia's territorial integrity.
In October 2008 Japan issued two hundred milloin USD credit for restoration of the infrastructure ruined in the course of the conflict in south Ossetia. This was the way Tokyo showed its active support to the democratic and market processes in Georgia and contributed in situation in Caucasus stabilization. This shows that Japan believes the strengthening of the rule of law and trust towards the government is the most important factor before any other action are taken, since it is futile to try and promote equality, non-discrimination and common respect for human rights if those who violate those, cannot be properly punished.

Economical and financial crisis

In the light of the ongoing crisis that has struck many economies all over the world, it seemed that Japan would remain as prosperous as it was, since it's economic policies have already changed after the Japan's very own economical crisis in the 1990s, which was very similar in many ways to the present crisis - especially compared to the situation in the USA. It is very surprisng that at the beginning of the crisis, not many would consider to analize the Japanese past decline to learn from it. The main difference between the Japanese crisis and the current one is, that Japan's economic fall was very much cushioned by the fact that Japanese consumers have one of the highest savings rates in the world. Because of that they could maintain (virtually) the same rates of consumption throughout the 1990s, which has to be taken into account when analising the Japanese economic recovery. But in spite of the differences, it seems that at least the USA and the United Nations have learned from Japan and realized that immediate action has to be taken when facing such a crisis. Normally Japan would be very reluctant to participate in a common, global attempt to find a solution. However, Japan is deeply threatened by it's recent economic reports and it is now obvious that it's policies that have until now tried to maintain some measures of isolation and independence from the rest of the world, will now have to be directed to the exact opposite goal, since it cannot save itself. And the most recent lesson the world can learn from Japan – the world's second largest and the world most sceptical economy - is that if our government is willing to cooperate on all levels, that means that global cooperation is definately the best solution.
Another important factor that needs to be taken into account is that fast choices are not always the best choices and that the crisis has to be analised from all aspects and views in to find a sustainable solution. If that kind of action isn't taken, we may very well find ourselves deeply integrated into a vicious circle of constant economic declines and recoveries.