Defending Human Dignity

To exercise Japan’s leadership in the international community, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida focused on “human dignity” in his speech at the General Debate of United Nations General Assembly on September 19th. Citing Japan’s non-permanent membership in UN Security Council and presidency in Group of Seven, Kishida proposed “A World Caring for Human Dignity” to “respond to the desperate desire for Peace and the pleas of vulnerable people seeking help.” So, what would Japan do for that?

 

Kishida insisted that Japan had led human-centered international cooperation, based on the concept of human security. In the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori declared that Japan would put “human security” on the center of its diplomacy. Considering the tradition of Japan’s UN diplomacy, Kishida requested further efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals, which is highly popular in the business sector inside Japan. “The key is to ‘invest in people,’ which is my pollical credo,” said Kishida.

 

However, does Kishida administration invest in its own people enough? Although he told that “Japan aims to reduce inequalities and overcome social divisions by promoting women’s participation,” his choice of no female State Minister or Parliamentary Vice-Minister earlier this month was criticized as the consequence of woman lawmakers’ shortage in Liberal Democratic Party.

 

What Kishida emphasized the most in his speech was the nuclear issue. Calling nuclear disarmament his lifelong mission, Kishida touched on the significance of promoting Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty and pledged ¥3 billion of contribution to newly establishment of “Japan Chair” at overseas research institutes and think tanks. But, Japan turns away from Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has already been signed by over 90 UN member countries. If Japan want to outreach the countries called Global South, joining the treaty at least as an observer should be an easier way.

 

Denouncing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, Kishida required reinforced UN. “Initiatives to limit the use of the veto, which exacerbates division and confrontation in the UN, will strengthen and restore confidence in the Security Council,” he said. While the appeal can be paralleled with what Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded to the member countries in General Debate, the intention of Japan is always regarded as connected to its ambition to join the permanent members, whenever it refers to Security Council reform. Russia also hopes to expand the member counties to erode the Western power in the council.

 

“Facing severe situation of the world today, we need a common language for human beings to achieve an international community for cooperation,” Kishida told, reading a piece of prepared paper, in his press conference after his UN speech. Being the top leader of a nation with over twenty thousand of yearly suicides or prevalent discriminations against ethnical or sexual minorities, was he successful in resonating his words to the people in the world?

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