Questions and answers between Dr. Ogata and students

From the moderator:
Dr. Ogata’s speech had many important implications. Once you enter a university, youshould not think there is always a right answer somewhere. Or, if someone shows you aright answer so easily, you had better have an attitude of questioning it and find theright answer by yourself. I feel this is a very significant basic rule when you live in auniversity. In the Global Focus on Knowledge lectures this year, as the dean said at thebeginning, the focus is on the sustainability viewed from society, which aims todemonstrate the relationship between the most advanced, cutting-edge academic
research and society. This time’s themes are “Academics and Society”, and “Academicsand Practice.” In this sense as well, Dr. Ogata’s speech includes many important points
to consider. My specialty also lies in international relationship, and I am researchingsimilar problems and issues which are pretty close to those researched by Dr. Ogata.
Still, I agree with Dr. Ogata that it is really important for the young people to ponder
questions by looking at the world widely as our own. Well, even if I had said the samething, students would not have listened…; but, I think today’s speech by Dr. Ogata, who
has much experience in both academic and practical fields in international society, andplays a significant role in important Japanese organizations, must have reached to yourheart more profoundly than a hundred of my speeches. Now, please raise your hands if
you have questions or comments.
Q:
You were saying that the reception of refugees into our country is very limited, Japan is
only looking at its people, but I think Japan should act more in international activities
which may include a larger reception of refugees. I simply think the reception ofrefugees is good, but are there any demerits in doing that? I can’t really think of themmyself. I’ll be happy if you could explain the differences in views about refugee reception
between Japan and other more-positive nations.
Dr. Ogata:
Acceptance of refugees is really limited. One reason is the fact that Japan is an island
country, and the culture is Japanese and the language is uniquely Japanese. When10,000 Indochinese refugees were created, Japan accepted all of these refugees becauseof the international agreement which was concluded at that time. It was in the 1980s
when Japan was positively processing the acceptance of refugees. After accepting those
Indochinese refugees, Japan made tremendous efforts such as teaching Japanese tothem. Japan was a member of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees which
obligates Japan to investigate anyone claiming themselves as asylum-seekers, and its
examination procedures were really severe. For example, refugees were asked if they
had a certificate of graduation; but of course they did not have such papers because they
had to flee from their countries as refugees. Due to such tight regulations, it was hard to
get into Japan as a refugee, and it ended with one refugee a year sometimes. These days
such regulations are getting abolished gradually; still, I think this is coming from, so tospeak, the narrow-mindedness of an island country, where we have less compassion andwarmth toward the outside world and different kinds of people. There is a kind ofillusion among us that security can be ensured that way. People have believed that wecan live safely in an island with one ethnic (which is actually not true) group of people.
Well, the acceptance of refugees is increasing to some extent; we accept some people as away of humanitarian measures, and people who are not regarded precisely as refugees
are also taken in from a humanitarian viewpoint. But here is the issue of foreign workforce. Indeed, Japan needs a lot of labor from foreign countries, and they are now
entering in a significant number. For example, there are 300,000 people from Brazil. Itis because they are Nikkei and can easily obtain a working visa. However, Japan has
not built any schools for their children, even if they live in Japan for a long time.
Under such insufficient circumstances, I strongly feel we need true democracy, which is
not merely a system where someone stands for election and a leader selected, but one
that shows considerations towards different kinds of people, weak people, and people inneed. We should not “exclude” them but try to “include” them. I sincerely believe thatJapanese prosperity will not come about unless we do it seriously. About refugees, I
should have made more efforts while I was a member of UNHCR, as some people
pointed out, but I was too busy helping people living under the governments that weremalfunctioning. At that time, I thought some people would do something, because there
were so many excellent people in Japan. But, when I returned, I found many problems
within Japan…

Q:
You said that an intervention may produce a new conflict. You and your staff members
were trying hard to protect people who were suffering under such circumstances, but doyou think such an anxiety, an intervention produces a new conflict, has been solved?
Q:
You were talking about Yugoslavia’s wars and said that people with various religions
and races were living harmoniously, but they started to fight, and finally even neighbors
faced each other with antagonism. In such cases, one party becomes an attacker andanother becomes a victim; both parties are human as you said, but I don’t know how
such antagonism can be removed. And, I would like to ask about the acceptance ofrefugees; there are two ways of acceptance: before a conflict and after a conflict. This isdifficult because it involves an issue of national sovereignty, but I wonder why it can not
be solved in advance. I would like to hear your ideas on this.
Q:
There was an incident in 2004 where three Japanese were captured in Iraq, and I thinksome people believed that if everyone does something, the world would change for thebetter, for example everyone putting on a white wrist band or singing “We Are TheWorld.” Some Student NGOs whose members are very eager to change something aresuch an example. However, professional NGO members are not like students, and they
have their own ideas and possess substantial resources. There is a wide gap between
those two. As a student who wishes to become a member of the UN in the future, I
would like to hear your suggestions on how to overcome such a gap.
Q:
You mentioned in today’s speech that ODA from Japan is decreasing. From what I haveheard, Japanese ODA is just supplying money, and Japanese enterprises get orders, orcontracts for building something in these regions. So, ODA is used for the benefit ofJapanese enterprises, and not really used for people in need in these regions. If this istrue, does ODA, as a supplier of just money, make any difference in these regions?
Q:
I was studying at Harvard University this spring as an exchange student, and I felt
strongly that I am Japanese. From that experience, when I think about the roles which
Japan could play within international society, I personally regard as important that

Japan is a nation with experiences of being atom-bombed during World War II, and hasan absolute determination of not owning atomic bombs. Also, we have been told fromour childhood days that if we leave even one piece of rice in a bowl, we should apologize
to the farmer who made it. We have been living in a nation in which we are told not towaste even the smallest amount of food. This cannot be well explained from an economic
perspective. If there is lots of money, wasting food is not a big deal, because it is easily
obtained again by new income. I personally think that Japanese international roleshould be based on such values. With this in mind, I’m concerned about how Japan canplay various roles and assume leadership in international society. I also want to knowwhat kind of stance a university student should have in this regard. Are you positive ornegative about the future of Japan or the world? I would like to hear your honest ideason this.
Dr. Ogata:
I’d like to answer from the first one. There is a question of how much prevention, whichlets intervention be not necessary, can be made. I think development assistance is one of
the really big instruments of prevention. Among them, of course, there are somedevelopment assistance which improves people’s lives, but at the same time feed
Japanese enterprises. I do not consider them as real development assistance. But when
I go to developing nations, I see the differences between the rich who have much and thepoor who do not have anything. Therefore, not all kinds of development assistance arewelcomed, but the one to minimize unfairness in society is necessary. As I mentioned in
my speech, if community building is completed, and if good communities are built, thereasons for conflict will surely be diminished. So, up till now the study of developmental
economics did not go deeply into the issue of social injustice and prevention of conflicts,
however, such research as political economy is expanding because we realize thesolutions to political problems are linked with development assistance, some economic
factors, etc. If development is one of the measures of prevention, we need to consider
what kinds of development are useful for such prevention and what elements should betaken into account.
I remember that it was two years ago, when I participated in an UN High-level Panel on
Peace and Security. We talked about what could contribute to the prevention of conflicts.
And this includes not only development assistance, but also the reduction of nuclear
weapons to prevent their further diffusion, solving a problem of trafficking of humanbeings and other issues. Thus, preventative measures should be expanded in manyforms. But what happens if we face sudden crisis for which those measures are notuseful any longer. Then, we have to think about military action. The report presented
some conditions for that, but unfortunately, they were not discussed in our country.
Now I come to the question of professional NGOs and student NGOs. When I wasteaching at a university, students at that time held many campaigns, and fought forwhat they thought were right. I believe nowadays, instead of doing such demonstrations,
there are many opportunities for you to state your opinions, and it is nice that theseopinions will turn into NGO movements to reflect themselves. There used to be only afew NGOs in Japan. There was no NGO in Japan when I saw a refugee camp for thefirst time, which was on the Cambodia border in 1979. We have some NGO groups thesedays. NGO members with a variety of talents and skills are taking action now. Well, I
think the gap you are feeling right now can be avoided by interacting with each other.
Talking about the roles Japan can play, or should play, this is best considered when you
are abroad and look at your own country from outside. When I was studying abroad, I
was researching the history of Japanese foreign policy for a while, and began wondering
what Japan really is for the first time. With this question in mind, I studied it evenmore keenly. I think our country’s experience of being atomic-bombed is also seriouslyimportant. If we keep living in Japan, we don’t realize how precious our customs andvalues are. We never think about how important it is not to leave one piece of rice in abowl. Parents keep telling those stories to children, so communication betweengenerations is very important. When you are away from Japan, you will notice manythings which you have never paid attention to before. So, I guess you have lots ofopportunities to go abroad, please think about your own country and its people, and theroles your country can play in international society.
And one last thing and that is language. I think we should understand foreignlanguages. To be honest, I think we should improve our language skills. I was so
surprised to hear from a Swedish person that in Sweden people used to study German
before, but currently everyone speaks English, whose population is nine million in all;they study English from the fourth grade in elementary school. After all, in order tointeract internationally we must have a good command of foreign languages; I believe
language is very important as one of the tools of communications. When I went to China
lately and lectured in English, I was very surprised that students in China asked mequestions in fluent English. So, we need to work hard and improve our foreign language
skills for communication.
And one more thing, and that is Bosnia. In the Yugoslavia federation, there was a long
history of the Serbs who were mostly farmers and mainly at the bottom of the society. In
contrast, different ethnic groups existed from different currents of history. They wanted
better political posts and positions when the federation was going to collapse. This
couldn’t happen if everyone had equal opportunities. Historically, there has been nofair-minded society. When history was going to crumble, they tried to protect themselves
by becoming superior to others. And there is always politics at the bottom under variousproblems. So, I reviewed the days of UNHCR, and issued one retrospective book. As one
conclusion I reached in that book, humanitarian assistance can help people under any
circumstances, but it can not solve conflicts. They can be solved by political negotiations,diplomacy, and politics. Humanitarian assistance can and should facilitate thesesolutions. The influence of power is not insignificant. Politics is a study of power, power
against power. I hope you understand it as what is happening in the real world.