Japan: Thousands Protest ‘War Law’

Al Jazeera: 30 August 2015

Protesters rally outside parliament to oppose new laws that could see troops engage in combat for first time since WWII.

Tokyo, Japan – Tens of thousands of protesters have rallied outside Japan’s parliament to oppose legislation that could see troops in the officially pacifist nation engage in combat for the first time since World War II.

In one of the summer’s biggest protests ahead of the new laws anticipated passage next month, protesters on Sunday chanted “No to war legislation!” ”Scrap the bills now!” and “Abe, quit!”
Organisers said about 120,000 people took part in the rally in the government district of Tokyo, filling the street outside the front gate of the parliament, or Diet. Similar demonstrations were held across nation.

The law would expand Japan’s military role under a reinterpretation of the country’s war-renouncing constitution.  In July, the more powerful lower house passed the bills that allow the army, or Self Defence Force, to engage in combat when allies come under attack even when Japan itself is not.
The upper house is currently debating the bills and is expected to pass them by late September, making it law.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his supporters say the bills are necessary for Japan to deal with the changed security environment in the world. Public polls showing the majority of people oppose the bills and support for Abe’s government is declining. “In order to make the world a better place, where the life of even a single child is taken away, we must take action now or Japan will make a turn for the worse. That’s why I came today,” Mami Tanaka, 35, who joined the rally with her husband and their three children, told the Reuters news agency. Activists posted the following footage from the protest

https://www.popularresistance.org/japan-thousands-protest-war-law/
 

Ministry of Defense in Japan was planning Economic Conscription System.

Japanese constitution Article 18 says, " No person shall be held in bondage of any kind. Involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime, is prohibited. " Some of the opponents of collective self defence bills concerned Abe government, which made "controversial" interpretation of pacifist Article 9 to pass the bill, may revive conscription system. The government firmly denied and some rightists argue that their concern is megalomania. However, the Ministry of Defence was scheming "SDF (Self Defence Force) Internship program" targeting to private sector freshman as below. Considering Japanese labour market situation and social norm, it is difficult for freshman to reject such order from employers.

(quote)

This is what has been discussed at Japanese Diet with regards to recruitment of Self-Defense Forces (SDF). The current administration is trying to make SDF more like a standing forces so that they can send them even to the Middle East as the US demands. Because of this political climate, many young officers are quitting SDF.

In order to stop losing young officers, they came up with a new plan to collaborate private sectors. Here is my translation of the below Japanese chart:

[Long-term Internship Program at Japan Self-defense Forces] Deal between Japanese DOD/SDF and private sectors, in which they mutually utilize human resources.

How this program works:

1) Private sectors send their freshmen to SDF for two years as interns

2) SDF accepts them as “limited term” interns.

3) SDF treats them as SDF officers until the end of their term. They can obtain certain certificates as they serve at SDF.

4) After the term, they will return to their original employers.

5) During their internship, their salary will be paid by the government.

Merits for corporations:

1) SDF-trained “fit” personnels can be obtained every year.

2) SDF provides trainings focusing on “basic education as an adult” with teamwork, and proactive skills.

3) Corporations can contribute to the nation’s defense.

Merits for DOD:

1) They’ve been suffering with recruiting new officers for a long time. This new program will provide them with continuous flow of young and capable personnels every year.

2) They can avoid competition with private sectors in recruiting freshmen. This is win-win situation for both DOD and corporations.

3) By developing better relationship with private sectors, DOD may be able to use former interns as “reserve” in the future.

To do list before stating this program:

1) DOD needs to establish a model case of this program.

2) DOD needs to plan an exam and other frame works.

3) DOD needs to provide private sectors with certain incentives.

One of comments is saying: DOD is planning a new type of recruiting more officers! Freshman employees go to SDF as interns for two years. They cannot refuse this “corporate order” and they may be sent to combat zones in case of wars. The government may offer subsidies and easy access to winning in open bids of public projects, to corporations in exchange with getting their employees as interns. This is a horrifying new system!

(unquote)

https://www.popularresistance.org/japan-thousands-protest-war-law/

Japan PM Abe's base aims to restore past religious, patriotic values

Japan PM Abe's base aims to restore past religious, patriotic values
Reuters: 11 December 2014

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promises voters a bright future for Japan's economy, key parts of his conservative base want him to steer the nation back toward a traditional ethos mixing Shinto myth, patriotism and pride in an ancient imperial line.

Proponents say such changes are needed to revive important aspects of Japanese culture eradicated by the U.S. Occupation after World War Two and to counter modern materialism.

Critics say they mirror the Shinto ideology which mobilized the masses to fight the war in the name of a divine emperor. The legacy of that war still haunts ties with China and South Korea nearly 70 years after its end.

A predicted landslide win by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a general election on Sunday, called as a referendum on his economic growth policies, and prospects Abe may become a rare long-term Japanese leader have given his ardent supporters their best chance in decades of achieving their goals.

"We really have trust in him," said Yutaka Yuzawa, director of the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (SAS), the political arm of the Association of Shinto Shrines. The group, which counts Abe as a member, is one of a network of overlapping organizations sharing a similar agenda.
"The prime minister's views are extremely close to our way of thinking," Yuzawa told Reuters in an interview.

Among the key elements of the SAS agenda are calls to rewrite Japan's U.S.-drafted, post-war constitution, not only to alter its pacifist Article 9 but to blur the separation of religion and state. Education reform to better nurture "love of country" among youth is another top priority.

"After the war, there was an atmosphere that considered all aspects of the pre-war era bad," Yuzawa said. "Policies were adopted weakening the relationship between the imperial household and the people ... and the most fundamental elements of Japanese history were not taught in the schools."
Similar concerns drive other organizations such as Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), a broader lobby group for which Abe serves as a "supreme adviser".


TEA PARTY PARALLELS

Experts see parallels between these groups and the U.S. Tea Party movement, with its calls to restore lost American values.

"Nippon Kaigi and the Shinto Association basically believe the Occupation period brought about ... the forced removal of Shinto traditions from public space and public institutions," said University of Auckland professor Mark Mullins.

"For them, this was authentic Japanese identity ... and to be an independent and authentic Japan again those things need to be restored."

Abe has long been close to such groups but they have increased their reach since his first 2006-2007 term as leader.

Membership data show 301 members of parliament, mostly from the LDP, are affiliated with the SAS, including 222 in the 480-seat lower house before the election. A Nippon Kaigi caucus had 295 members, including some opposition MPs.

Members of the groups are central to Abe's administration.

Nippon Kaigi supporters accounted for 84 percent of Abe's cabinet after it was rejigged in September and almost all ministers were affiliated with the SAS. Eighty-four percent also belonged to a separate caucus promoting visits to Yasukuni Shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
Abe's December 2013 visit to Yasukuni sparked outrage in Beijing and Seoul. Far less attention was paid to what some see as his equally symbolic participation in October that year in a ceremony at Ise Shrine, the holiest of Japan's Shinto institutions.

The ritual is held every 20 years, when Ise Shrine is rebuilt and sacred objects representing the emperor's mythical Sun Goddess ancestress are transferred to the new shrine.

Abe became only the second premier to take part in the centuries-old ritual, and the first since World War Two. "Without anyone blinking an eye ... it became a state rite," said John Breen, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, commenting on Abe's participation.
The lobby groups are also active at the grassroots.

On Oct. 1, they launched the "People's Council to Write a Beautiful Constitution" to boost support for revising the charter in 2016.

Amending the constitution faces big hurdles even if the LDP succeeds in winning two-thirds of both chambers, since a majority of voters must then approve changes in a referendum.

But other parts of the conservative agenda are moving ahead, such as making "moral education" part of the official school curriculum with government-approved textbooks, a change slated to take effect in 2018.

That follows a revision to a law on education during Abe's first term to make nurturing "love of country" a goal.

"Things related to patriotic education are getting pushed through and institutionalized so they are shaping the next generation, whether parents know or think about it or not," the University of Auckland's Mullins said.

For Japan, a Difficult Art of Saying It’s Sorry

For Japan, a Difficult Art of Saying It’s Sorry
Wall Street Journal: 13 January 2015

This year, which will mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, we’re likely to hear a chorus of voices urging Japan to behave more like Germany, the model penitent.

No country has ever displayed the same level of contrition. Germany’s agonized soul-searching and apologies after the most destructive war in history helped put to rest fears that it would ever again threaten peace. Reassured, Europe was able to reconcile.

By contrast, Japan’s remembrance of its wartime past often has been unapologetic. That is said to explain why relations with China and South Korea, which were most traumatized by Japanese militarism, are still poisoned. There’s a real fear that mounting tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands could erupt into armed conflict.

Japan should apologize comprehensively, once and for all, the argument runs, to lessen tensions in East Asia. Expectations are already high among regional politicians, academics and victim’s groups for what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will say on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in August.
If only it were that easy.

First, it’s simply not true that Japan has been parsimonious with its official apologies.
Japan can be faulted for its tendency to dwell primarily on its own wartime sufferings, for playing down its atrocities in school textbooks and for the inflammatory denial by public figures of such facts as the widespread use of slave labor, the Nanking massacre and the forced recruitment of “comfort women” who acted as sex slaves for the Imperial Army.

But its leaders can’t be accused of not saying sorry. In recent decades they’ve apologized repeatedly and profusely.

In 1991, then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa begged forgiveness for the “unbearable torment and grief” Japan inflicted on the Asia Pacific. On the 50th anniversary of the surrender, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama expressed “deep remorse” and “heartfelt apology” for colonial rule and aggression.

No Japanese leader has yet matched former German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s iconic “kniefall” in 1970, when he dropped to his knees at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Still, in 2001, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi laid a wreath in South Korea while apologizing for colonial rule there.

Second, it’s not at all clear that another sweeping mea culpa by Mr. Abe would do much good. It might even make matters worse.  Jennifer Lind, the author of “Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics,” disputes the widespread assumption that apologies are a necessary part of reconciliation. She notes that Germany and France made up even before Germany really began to atone for its Nazi horrors. That took a generation. Moreover, apologies are politically risky, says Ms. Lind: They often provoke a backlash in countries making them.

That’s precisely what happens in Japan, where official apologies prompt howls of denial from right-wing nationalists and other extremists, undoing all the good intentions.

The trouble with Mr. Abe is that he has appointed several such figures to positions of prominence, raising questions about where his own sympathies lie. His visit in 2013 to the Yasukuni war shrine, where 14 Class A war criminals are enshrined along with other war dead, gave ammunition to his critics. It allowed China and South Korea to paint him as an unrepentant militarist.

And there’s the rub. Further apologies won’t fix the real problem in East Asia, which is that arguments over history are being exploited by politicians for their own domestic ends.

History debates fuel competing nationalist agendas in the region. They inflame territorial disputes and preclude pragmatic diplomatic solutions.

In China, anti-Japanese sentiment has become a vital crutch for the regime. Portraying Japan as an unrepentant brute helps justify China’s military buildup.

By the same token, many in Japan have come to view China’s economic rise as an existential threat; Mr. Abe’s appeal to voters is at least in part due to expectations that he will stand up to Japan’s powerful neighbor. Getting down on his knees would play well in Beijing and Seoul, but terribly in Tokyo.

True reconciliation anywhere in the world is so hard to pull off that politicians generally have to be forced into it. A common threat is helpful. That was the case in Europe where Cold War imperatives encouraged healing.

Unfortunately, the political incentives in East Asia mostly pull in the opposite direction—toward further enmity.

So what should Mr. Abe say on the Aug. 15 anniversary? He’s promised a statement that will set out “Japan’s remorse over the war, its postwar history as a pacifist nation and how it will contribute to the Asia Pacific region and the world.” He also said he won’t backtrack on earlier official apologies.
All this is essential to improve his standing as a global statesman. But whatever he says is unlikely to appease Japan’s two close neighbors. There are no “magic words,” says Ms. Lind. “China will be unhappy regardless.”

Even if Japan adopts Germany as its model to heal the wounds of World War II in Asia, the question is whether China and South Korea would then act more like France, a model of forgiveness.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-japan-a-difficult-art-of-saying-its-sorry-1421127266
 

Manifesto | Kyoto University Campaign for Freedom and Peace

Manifesto | Kyoto University Campaign for Freedom and Peace

War begins in the name of defence
War rewards the weapons industry
War quickly becomes uncontrollable

War is easier to start than to end
War wounds not only soldiers but also the elderly and children
War cuts not only the body but leaves scars deep inside the heart

The mind is not an object to be manipulated
Life is not a pawn to be played

The sea is not to be lost amid military bases
The sky is not be erased by fighter planes

We would rather live in a country that is proud of its wisdom
than in a country that thinks shedding blood is the contribution

Scholarship is not a weapon of war
Scholarship is not a tool of business
Scholarship is not a servant of power

To create
To protect
A place to live
The freedom to think

We will strike against this conceited power

Xi’s history lessons

Xi’s history lessons
The Economist:15 August, 2015

IN EARLY September President Xi Jinping will take the salute at a huge military parade in Beijing. It will be his most visible assertion of authority since he came to power in 2012: his first public appearance at such a display of missiles, tanks and goose-stepping troops. Officially the event will be all about the past, commemorating the end of the second world war in 1945 and remembering the 15m Chinese people who died in one of its bloodiest chapters: the Japanese invasion and occupation of China of 1937-45.

It will be a reminder of the bravery of China’s soldiers and their crucial role in confronting Asia’s monstrously aggressive imperial power. And rightly so: Chinese sacrifices during that hellish period deserve much wider recognition. Between 1937, when total war erupted in China, and late 1941, when the attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into the fray, China fought the Japanese alone. By the end of the war it had lost more people—soldiers and civilians—than any other country bar the Soviet Union.

Yet next month’s parade is not just about remembrance; it is about the future, too. This is the first time that China  is commemorating the war with a military show, rather than with solemn ceremony. The symbolism will not be lost on its neighbours. And it will unsettle them, for in East Asia today the rising, disruptive, undemocratic power is no longer a string of islands presided over by a god-emperor. It is the world’s most populous nation, led by a man whose vision for the future (a richer country with a stronger military arm) sounds a bit like one of Japan’s early imperial slogans. It would be wrong to press the parallel too far: China is not about to invade its neighbours. But there are reasons to worry about the way the Chinese Communist Party sees history—and massages it to justify its current ambitions.

History with Chinese characteristics

Under Mr Xi, the logic of history goes something like this. China played such an important role in vanquishing Japanese imperialism that not only does it deserve belated recognition for past valour and suffering, but also a greater say in how Asia is run today. Also, Japan is still dangerous. Chinese schools, museums and TV programmes constantly warn that the spirit of aggression still lurks across the water. A Chinese diplomat has implied that Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is a new Voldemort, the epitome of evil in the “Harry Potter” series. At any moment Japan could menace Asia once more, party newspapers intone. China, again, is standing up to the threat.

As our essay on the ghosts of the war that ended 70 years ago this week explains, this narrative requires exquisite contortions. For one thing, it was not the Chinese communists who bore the brunt of the fighting against Japan, but their sworn enemies, the nationalists (or Kuomintang) under Chiang Kai-shek. For another, today’s Japan is nothing like the country that slaughtered the inhabitants of Nanjing, forced Korean and Chinese women into military brothels or tested biological weapons on civilians.

Granted, Japan never repented of its war record as full-throatedly as Germany did. Even today a small but vocal group of Japanese ultra-nationalists deny their country’s war crimes, and Mr Abe, shamefully, sometimes panders to them. Yet the idea that Japan remains an aggressive power is absurd. Its soldiers have not fired a shot in anger since 1945. Its democracy is deeply entrenched; its respect for human rights profound. Most Japanese acknowledge their country’s war guilt. Successive governments have apologised, and Mr Abe is expected to do the same . Today Japan is ageing, shrinking, largely pacifist and, because of the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, unlikely ever to possess nuclear weapons.

The dangers of demonisation

China’s demonisation of Japan is not only unfair; it is also risky. Governments that stoke up nationalist animosity cannot always control it. So far, China’s big show of challenging Japan’s control of the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) islands has involved only sabre-rattling, not bloodshed. But there is always a danger that a miscalculation could lead to something worse.

East Asia’s old war wounds have not yet healed. The Korean peninsula remains sundered, China and Taiwan are separate, and even Japan can be said to be split, for since 1945 America has used the southern island of Okinawa as its main military stronghold in the western Pacific. The Taiwan Strait and the border between North and South Korea continue to be potential flashpoints; whether they one day turn violent depends largely on China’s behaviour, for better or worse. It is naive to assume America will always be able to keep a lid on things.

On the contrary, many Asians worry that China’s ambitions set it on a collision course with the superpower and the smaller nations that shelter under its security umbrella. When China picks fights with Japan in the East China Sea, or builds airstrips on historically disputed reefs in the South China Sea, it feeds those fears. It also risks sucking America into its territorial disputes, and raises the chances of eventual conflict.

Post-war East Asia is not like western Europe. No NATO or European Union binds former foes together. France’s determination to promote lasting peace by uniting under a common set of rules with Germany, its old invader, has no Asian equivalent. East Asia is therefore less stable than western Europe: a fissile mix of countries both rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian, with far less agreement on common values or even where their borders lie. Small wonder Asians are skittish when the regional giant, ruled by a single party that draws little distinction between itself and the Chinese nation, plays up themes of historical victimhood and the need to correct for it.

How much better it would be if China sought regional leadership not on the basis of the past, but on how constructive its behaviour is today. If Mr Xi were to commit China to multilateral efforts to foster regional stability, he would show that he has truly learned the lessons of history. That would be far, far better than repeating it.

Xi’s history lessons

Full text of Abe’s declaration on 70th anniversary of the end of WWII

Full text of Abe’s declaration on 70th anniversary of the end of WWII
The Japan Times: 14 August 2015

The following is the full text of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s statement released Friday marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
Statement by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Cabinet Decision
On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, we must calmly reflect upon the road to war, the path we have taken since it ended, and the era of the 20th century. We must learn from the lessons of history the wisdom for our future.

More than one hundred years ago, vast colonies possessed mainly by the Western powers stretched out across the world. With their overwhelming supremacy in technology, waves of colonial rule surged toward Asia in the 19th century. There is no doubt that the resultant sense of crisis drove Japan forward to achieve modernization. Japan built a constitutional government earlier than any other nation in Asia. The country preserved its independence throughout. The Japan-Russia War gave encouragement to many people under colonial rule from Asia to Africa.

After World War I, which embroiled the world, the movement for self-determination gained momentum and put brakes on colonization that had been underway. It was a horrible war that claimed as many as ten million lives. With a strong desire for peace stirred in them, people founded the League of Nations and brought forth the General Treaty for Renunciation of War. There emerged in the international community a new tide of outlawing war itself.

At the beginning, Japan, too, kept steps with other nations. However, with the Great Depression setting in and the Western countries launching economic blocs by involving colonial economies, Japan’s economy suffered a major blow. In such circumstances, Japan’s sense of isolation deepened and it attempted to overcome its diplomatic and economic deadlock through the use of force. Its domestic political system could not serve as a brake to stop such attempts. In this way, Japan lost sight of the overall trends in the world.

With the Manchurian Incident, followed by the withdrawal from the League of Nations, Japan gradually transformed itself into a challenger to the new international order that the international community sought to establish after tremendous sacrifices. Japan took the wrong course and advanced along the road to war.

And, seventy years ago, Japan was defeated.
On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, I bow my head deeply before the souls of all those who perished both at home and abroad. I express my feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences.

More than 3 million of our compatriots lost their lives during the war: on the battlefields worrying about the future of their homeland and wishing for the happiness of their families; in remote foreign countries after the war, in extreme cold or heat, suffering from starvation and disease. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the air raids on Tokyo and other cities, and the ground battles in Okinawa, among others, took a heavy toll among ordinary citizens without mercy.

Also in countries that fought against Japan, countless lives were lost among young people with promising futures. In China, Southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and elsewhere that became the battlefields, numerous innocent citizens suffered and fell victim to battles as well as hardships such as severe deprivation of food. We must never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured.

Upon the innocent people did our country inflict immeasurable damage and suffering. History is harsh. What is done cannot be undone. Each and every one of them had his or her life, dream, and beloved family. When I squarely contemplate this obvious fact, even now, I find myself speechless and my heart is rent with the utmost grief.

The peace we enjoy today exists only upon such precious sacrifices. And therein lies the origin of postwar Japan.

We must never again repeat the devastation of war.

Incident, aggression, war — we shall never again resort to any form of the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. We shall abandon colonial rule forever and respect the right of self-determination of all peoples throughout the world.

With deep repentance for the war, Japan made that pledge. Upon it, we have created a free and democratic country, abided by the rule of law, and consistently upheld that pledge never to wage a war again. While taking silent pride in the path we have walked as a peace-loving nation for as long as 70 years, we remain determined never to deviate from this steadfast course.

Japan has repeatedly expressed the feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war. In order to manifest such feelings through concrete actions, we have engraved in our hearts the histories of suffering of the people in Asia as our neighbors: those in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and China, among others; and we have consistently devoted ourselves to the peace and prosperity of the region since the end of the war.

Such position articulated by the previous Cabinets will remain unshakable into the future.
However, no matter what kind of efforts we may make, the sorrows of those who lost their family members and the painful memories of those who underwent immense sufferings by the destruction of war will never be healed.

Thus, we must take to heart the following.

The fact that more than 6 million Japanese repatriates managed to come home safely after the war from various parts of the Asia-Pacific and became the driving force behind Japan’s postwar reconstruction; the fact that nearly three thousand Japanese children left behind in China were able to grow up there and set foot on the soil of their homeland again; and the fact that former POWs of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and other nations have visited Japan for many years to continue praying for the souls of the war dead on both sides.

How much emotional struggle must have existed and what great efforts must have been necessary for the Chinese people who underwent all the sufferings of the war and for the former POWs who experienced unbearable sufferings caused by the Japanese military in order for them to be so tolerant nevertheless?

That is what we must turn our thoughts to reflect upon.

Thanks to such manifestation of tolerance, Japan was able to return to the international community in the postwar era. Taking this opportunity of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Japan would like to express its heartfelt gratitude to all the nations and all the people who made every effort for reconciliation.

In Japan, the postwar generations now exceed 80 per cent of its population. We must not let our children, grandchildren, and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologize. Still, even so, we Japanese, across generations, must squarely face the history of the past. We have the responsibility to inherit the past, in all humbleness, and pass it on to the future.

Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations were able to survive in a devastated land in sheer poverty after the war. The future they brought about is the one our current generation inherited and the one we will hand down to the next generation. Together with the tireless efforts of our predecessors, this has only been possible through the goodwill and assistance extended to us that transcended hatred by a truly large number of countries, such as the United States, Australia, and European nations, which Japan had fiercely fought against as enemies.

We must pass this down from generation to generation into the future. We have the great responsibility to take the lessons of history deeply into our hearts, to carve out a better future, and to make all possible efforts for the peace and prosperity of Asia and the world.

We will engrave in our hearts the past, when Japan attempted to break its deadlock with force. Upon this reflection, Japan will continue to firmly uphold the principle that any disputes must be settled peacefully and diplomatically based on the respect for the rule of law and not through the use of force, and to reach out to other countries in the world to do the same. As the only country to have ever suffered the devastation of atomic bombings during war, Japan will fulfill its responsibility in the international community, aiming at the nonproliferation and ultimate abolition of nuclear weapons.

We will engrave in our hearts the past, when the dignity and honor of many women were severely injured during wars in the 20th century. Upon this reflection, Japan wishes to be a country always at the side of such women’s injured hearts. Japan will lead the world in making the 21st century an era in which women’s human rights are not infringed upon.

We will engrave in our hearts the past, when forming economic blocs made the seeds of conflict thrive. Upon this reflection, Japan will continue to develop a free, fair and open international economic system that will not be influenced by the arbitrary intentions of any nation. We will strengthen assistance for developing countries, and lead the world toward further prosperity. Prosperity is the very foundation for peace. Japan will make even greater efforts to fight against poverty, which also serves as a hotbed of violence, and to provide opportunities for medical services, education, and self-reliance to all the people in the world.

We will engrave in our hearts the past, when Japan ended up becoming a challenger to the international order. Upon this reflection, Japan will firmly uphold basic values such as freedom, democracy, and human rights as unyielding values and, by working hand in hand with countries that share such values, hoist the flag of “Proactive Contribution to Peace,” and contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world more than ever before.

Heading toward the 80th, the 90th and the centennial anniversary of the end of the war, we are determined to create such a Japan together with the Japanese people.