UN General Assembly
2009

I should like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I should also like to express my respect to His Excellency Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann for his excellent leadership at the previous session. I also highly commend the dedication and leadership of His Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in tackling the various challenging issues that the United Nations faces at the present time. It was 120 years ago, in 1889, that an electoral system, while limited, was initiated in Japan. From that time forward, the change of governments through elections has been a matter of course in Japan. Japan also enjoyed a period in the early twentieth century known as the Taisho democracy. Japan is thus a nation with a solid heritage of democracy and elections. Since the Second World War, however, Japan has not experienced changes of power through the ballot box. Tensions between politicians and bureaucrats disappeared. It cannot be denied that as a result, Japan’s foreign policy has been somewhat