Dr. Avnish Jolly, Chandigarh, 4th Jan , 2009 :The support of Japan towards cultural integrations based upon its contract and experiences with other civilizations. First contact with the West came in about 1542, when a Portuguese ship off course arrived in Japanese waters. Portuguese traders, Jesuit missionaries, and Spanish, Dutch, and English traders followed.
Suspicious of Christianity and of Portuguese support of a local Japanese revolt, the shoguns of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) prohibited all trade with foreign countries; only a Dutch trading post at Nagasaki was permitted. Western attempts to renew trading relations failed until 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry sailed an American fleet into Tokyo Bay. Trade with the West was forced upon Japan under terms less than favorable to the Japanese. Strife caused by these actions brought down the feudal world of the shoguns. In 1868, the emperor Meiji came to the throne, and the shogun system was abolished. Japan quickly made the transition from a medieval to a modern power. An imperial army was established with conscription, and parliamentary government was formed in 1889. The Japanese began to take steps to extend their empire. After a brief war with China in 1894–1895, Japan acquired Formosa (Taiwan), the Pescadores Islands, and part of southern Manchuria. China also recognized the independence of Korea (Chosen), which Japan later annexed (1910).
In 1904–1905, Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, gaining the territory of southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) and Russia’s port and rail rights in Manchuria. In World War I, Japan seized Germany’s Pacific islands and leased areas in China. The Treaty of Versailles then awarded Japan a mandate over the islands.
At the Washington Conference of 1921–1922, Japan agreed to respect Chinese national integrity, but, in 1931, it invaded Manchuria. The following year, Japan set up this area as a puppet state, “Manchukuo,” under Emperor Henry Pu-Yi, the last of China’s Manchu dynasty. On Nov. 25, 1936, Japan joined the Axis. The invasion of China came the next year, followed by the Pearl Harbor attack on the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941. Japan won its first military engagements during the war, extending its power over a vast area of the Pacific. Yet, after 1942, the Japanese were forced to retreat, island by island, to their own country. The dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 by the United States finally brought the government to admit defeat. Japan surrendered formally on Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands reverted to the USSR, and Formosa (Taiwan) and Manchuria to China. The Pacific islands remained under U.S. occupation. Gen. Douglas MacArthur was appointed supreme commander of the U.S. occupation of postwar Japan (1945–1952). In 1947, a new constitution took effect. The emperor became largely a symbolic head of state. The U.S. and Japan signed a security treaty in 1951, allowing for U.S. troops to be stationed in Japan. In 1952, Japan regained full sovereignty, and, in 1972, the U.S. returned to Japan the Ryuku Islands, including Okinawa.
Japan’s postwar economic recovery was nothing short of remarkable. New technologies and manufacturing were undertaken with great success. A shrewd trade policy gave Japan larger shares in many Western markets, an imbalance that caused some tensions with the U.S. The close involvement of Japanese government in the country’s banking and industry produced accusations of protectionism. Yet economic growth continued through the 1970s and 1980s, eventually making Japan the world’s second-largest economy. During the 1990s, Japan suffered an economic downturn prompted by scandals involving government officials, bankers, and leaders of industry. Japan succumbed to the Asian economic crisis in 1998, experiencing its worst recession since World War II. These setbacks led to the resignation of Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in July 1998. He was replaced by Keizo Obuchi. In 1999, Japan seemed to make slight progress in an economic recovery. Prime Minister Obuchi died of a stroke in May 2000 and was succeeded by Yoshiro Mori, whose administration was dogged by scandal and blunders from the outset.
Despite attempts to revive the economy, fears that Japan would slide back into recession increased in early 2001. The embattled Mori resigned in April 2001 and was replaced by Liberal Democrat Junichiro Koizumi—the country’s 11th prime minister in 13 years. Koizumi enjoyed fleeting popularity; after two years in office the economy remained in a slump and his attempts at reform were thwarted. At an unprecedented summit meeting in North Korea in Sept. 2002, President Kim Jong Il apologized to Koizumi for North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens during the 1970s and 1980s, and Koizumi pledged a generous aid package—both significant steps toward normalizing relations. Koizumi was overwhelmingly reelected in Sept. 2003 and promised to push ahead with tough economic reforms.
In April 2005, China protested the publication of Japanese textbooks that whitewashed the atrocities committed by Japan during World War II. Prime Minister Koizumi apologized for Japan’s abuses, admitting that “Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering.” In Aug. 2005, Koizumi called for early elections, when the upper house of parliament rejected his proposal to privatize the postal service—a reform he has long advocated. In addition to delivering mail, Japan’s postal service also functions as a savings bank and has about $3 trillion in assets. Koizumi won a landslide victory in September, with his Liberal Democrat Party securing its biggest majority since 1986. Princesss Kiko gave birth to a boy in September. The child’s birth spares Japan a controversial debate over whether women should be allowed to ascend to the throne. The child is third in line to become emperor, behind Crown Prince Naruhito, who has one daughter, and the baby’s father, Prince Akishino, who has two daughters. In September 2005, a week after becoming leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shinzo Abe succeeded Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister. He promptly assembled a conservative cabinet and said he hoped to increase Japan’s influence on global issues. Early into his term, Abe focused on nationalist issues, giving the military a more prominent role and paving the way to amend the country’s pacifist constitution. He suffered a stunning blow in July 2007 parliamentary elections, however, when his Liberal Democratic Party lost control of the upper house to the opposition Democratic Party. Abe faced international criticism in early 2007 for refusing to acknowledge the military role in forcing as many as 200,000 Japanese women, known as comfort women, to provide sex to soldiers during World War II. In March, Abe did apologize to the women, but maintained his denial that the military was involved. "I express my sympathy for the hardships they suffered and offer my apology for the situation they found themselves in," he said.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in northwest Japan in July 2007, killing 10 people and injuring more than 900. The tremor caused skyscrapers in Tokyo to sway for almost a minute, buckled roads and bridges, and damaged a nuclear power plant. About 315 gallons of radioactive water leaked into the Sea of Japan. Prime Minister Abe abruptly announced his resignation in September just days into the parliamentary session, during which he stated his controversial plan to extend Japan’s participation in a U.S.-led naval mission in Afghanistan. The move followed a string of scandals and the stunning defeat of his Liberal Democratic Party in July’s parliamentary elections. The Liberal Democratic Party elected Yasuo Fukuda to succeed Abe. Fukuda, a veteran lawmaker, was elected to Parliament in 1990 and held the post as chief cabinet secretary under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. His father, Takeo Fukuda, served as prime minister from 1976 to 1978.
In June 2008, the upper house of Parliament, which is controlled by the opposition, censured Fukuda, citing his management of domestic issues. The lower house, however, supported him in a vote of confidence. Fukuda unexpectedly resigned in September, barely a year in office. Shortly before he stepped down, Fukuda made several cabinet changes and announced a $17 billion stimulus package, making his resignation that much more stunning. He had, however, been unable to break a stalemate in Parliament that prevented passage of several pieces of important legislation. Taro Aso, a conservative and former foreign minister, was elected as president of the governing Liberal Democratic Party in September. Two days later, on September 24, the lower house of Parliament selected him as prime minister. He is widely expected to call national elections in the coming months. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which won control of the upper house of Parliament in 2007, poses a viable threat to the Liberal Democrats who have been in control for more than 50 years.
Japanese who experienced firsthand the devastation of World War II have driven the strong sense of pacifism that has characterized Japan for the last half a century. But, as the generation of people whose pacifism is based on that experience is nearly gone, Japan needs to develop a new motivation for pacifism. At the same time, Japan is trying to secure its position in an ever-changing world and finding that human security offers a framework for a future-oriented pragmatic pacifism in Japanese politics. The evolution of the human security concept into a pillar of Japanese foreign policy thus reflects Japan’s quest to solidify its position in the international community as a “global civilian power.” Based on the report of the Commission on Human Security, co-chaired by Ogata and Sen, Japanese ODA policy also turned its attention toward human security, redesigning in 2003 the “grassroots grant aid” that was available to developing countries as “grassroots human security grant aid.” In August 2003, the ODA charter was revised for the first time in 10 years, and human security was included in the new charter as one of Japan’s fundamental policy tools. The Midterm Policy on Official Development Assistance, released in February 2005, also clearly placed human security as a central policy tool for Japanese aid. The focus on human security is prompting Japan to expand the pool of actors who are involved in policymaking, reflecting a trend that is taking place around the world. First we saw the common diplomatic framework transition from bilateral to multilateral diplomacy. But, the framework is being further expanded to include NGOs and other civil society networks. This framework allows us to view the community not only as the end point of top down policy making but also as the starting point for a more bottom-up approach to decision making.
“Sustainability” is a common topic in discussions about international development aid. The international development and global health fields tend to talk about self-sufficiency as the ultimate goal of sustainability, which is an indispensable element of development aid in many cases. But, considering the vast amount of money needed to support health systems and fight today’s costly diseases, it is unrealistic to expect that developing countries will be able to take on the full financial burden for their own health systems and health delivery in the near future. Instead, there is a need to think about sustainability in a new way, aiming for sustainability at the international level (global sustainability) rather than at the country level by ensuring predictable, sustainable funding coming from the international community. This need for global sustainability of funding can be illustrated by the challenges associated addressing with the health workforce crisis. One reason for the shortage of health workers in developing countries is that investments in training health workers are long term and require some level of certainty that funding will be available for at least 15 to 20 years down the road. For example, once a country decides to increase its capacity to train health workers, it needs to develop facilities and programs for training, spend several years training future workers, and then continue to pay their salaries for at least 10 to 15 years after they complete the training. If there is no guarantee that the salaries will be paid, workers are more likely to go to another country to work, contributing to the trend of brain drain. So, if governments know that they can count on international support for health over the long term, they can make long term investments in human resource evelopment and other aspects of their health systems. On the other hand, if they are worried that funds will be cut off in a couple of years, they are less likely to make the original investment.
Although we generally talk about global health at the macro level, we should not lose track of diseases and other illnesses that cross borders easily. We can also anticipate significant the fact that health is very personal and that it very strongly impacts and is impacted by many other factors in people’s lives. Our approach to global health needs to be human centered and to involve the individuals and communities who are meant to benefit from health interventions in all stages of needs assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. In doing so, we need to better understand how their vulnerability to health challenges interconnects with other challenges they face in their daily lives. Focusing our efforts on individuals and communities requires an integrated protection and empowerment approach that also crosses sectors and national boundaries, reflecting the actual way in which threats are experienced. And, we need to remember that helping individuals and communities around the world to be more secure in their daily lives is not an inexpensive venture, particularly when dealing with the massive challenges surrounding communicable diseases and other health challenges. But, it is important to remember that investment in the health of our fellow human beings in the developing world will also help to protect our own citizens in the industrialized world from health-related threats, particularly communicable benefits in terms of economic development and social stability emerging from healthier communities around the world. Considering the health workforce crisis that most developing countries face, particularly in rural areas, the WHO and other agencies have suggested global numerical targets for increasing health workforces in developing countries. Rather than focusing strictly on numerical targets for training and hiring of health workers, though, Japan should take the lead, as one of the world’s strongest proponents of the concept of human security, and propose pilot projects in several key regions that aim to address the health workforce crisis through a human security framework. These pilot projects would involve all stakeholders, including current and future health workers as well as the end users of health systems (patients), in identifying the needs and plethora of reasons why health workers leave their home countries and hometowns; making sure that health workers are trained and equipped to deal with the health challenges that most affect their communities; developing and implementing cross-sectoral programs that aim to keep health workers in their jobs and in their communities with incentives that are not limited to monetary compensation but take into account all of the human needs of health workers; and monitoring progress over the short, medium, and long term to better understand what, if anything, the human security framework is contributing. We are convinced that partnership and cooperation among nations and among actors from all sectors are indispensable if we are to achieve our goals to maintaining and strengthening the international community’s focus on global health, not only at the forthcoming summit but in the ensuing months and years, so that we can achieve real and although sustainable improvements in the he of individuals and communities around the world.
The visit establishes my faith that with this visit Japan is contributing their sustainable efforts for Global Health and Security.