You are on page 1of 17

JAPAN-UNITED NATIONS

Dr. Machya A. Dewi, M.Si.


Machdewi@Yahoo.com

History

Joined the UN in 1956.


In the late 1950s, Japan participated actively in
the social and economic activities of the UN's
various specialized agencies and other
international organizations concerned with social,
cultural, and economic improvement.
During the 1970s, as it attained the status of an
economic superpower, Japan was called on to
play an increasingly large role in the UN.

As Japan's role increased and its contributions to


UN socioeconomic development activities grew,
many Japanese began to ask whether their country
was being given an international position of
responsibility commensurate with its economic
power.
There was even some sentiment, expressed as
early as 1973, that Japan should be given a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council with
the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France,
and China.

By 1990 Japan's international cooperation efforts


had reached a new level of involvement and
activism.
Japan contributed about 11 percent of the regular
UN budget, second only to the United States, which
contributed 25 percent.
Japan was particularly active in UN peacekeeping
activities and in 1989, for the first time, sent
officials to observe and participate in UN
peacekeeping efforts (in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and
Namibia).

Japan sent a small team to observe the February


1990 elections in Nicaragua.
In 1992-93 Japan led UN supervision of the peace
process and elections in Cambodia, providing
approximately 2,000 people, which included
members of the SDF.
In addition to its UN activities and its participation
in Asian regional groupings, such as the Colombo
Plan and the Asian Development Bank, Japan is
also involved, beginning in the 1950s, in
worldwide economic groupings largely made up
of, or dominated by, the industrialized nations of
Western Europe and North America.

In 1952 Japan became a member of the International


Monetary Fund (IMF) and of the World Bank, where it
played an increasingly important role.
In 1955, it joined the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT).
In 1966 Japan was admitted to the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
which brought it into what was essentially a club of
leading industrialized nations.
Japan has participated actively since 1975 in the
annual summit meetings of the seven largest
capitalist countries, the Group of Seven, or G8, since
Russia joined after the end of the Cold War.

The Permanent Seat

By 1992, Germany and Japan had become the


second and third largest contributor to the United
Nations and started to demand a permanent seat.
Also Brazil (fifth largest country in terms of
territory) and India (second largest country in
terms of population) as the most powerful
countries within their regional groups and key
players within their regions saw themselves with
a permanent seat.
This group of four countries formed an interest
group later known as the G4.

On the other hand their regional rivals were


opposed to the G4 becoming permanent
members with a veto power.
They favored the expansion of the non-permanent
category of seats with members to be elected on
a regional basis.
Italy, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, South
Korea and Pakistan started to form an interest
group, known as the Coffee Club and later
Uniting for Consensus.

Simultaneously, the African Group started


to demand two permanent seats for
themselves, on the basis of historical
injustices and the fact that a large part of
the Councils agenda is concentrated on
the continent.
Those two seats would be permanent
African seats, that rotate between African
countries chosen by the African group.

The existing permanent members, each holding


the right of veto on Security Council reform,
announced their positions reluctantly.
The United States supported the permanent
membership of Japan and India and a small
number of additional non-permanent members.
The United Kingdom and France essentially
supported the G4 position, with the expansion of
permanent and non-permanent members and the
accession of German, Brazil, India and Japan to
permanent member status, as well as an increase
the presence by African countries on the Council.

China supported the stronger representation of


developing countries, voicing support for the
Republic of India.
Russia, India's long time friend and ally has also
endorsed the fast growing power's candidature to
assume a seat of a permanent member on the
Security Council.

Japans Position

Japan is the second largest contributor to


the UN's regular budget.
Its payments had surpassed the sum of
those of the United Kingdom, France, China
and Russia combined for nearly two
decades before 2010.
Japan has been one of the largest Official
Development Assistance donor countries.
Thus, Japan, along with India, are
considered the most likely candidate for two
of the new permanent seats.

China has stated that it was ready to


support India's move for a permanent seat
on the UNSC if India did not associate its
bid with Japan.
This may be contrary to the Indian stand
since Japan and India are both members of
the G4 and support each other's
candidature.

United States unambiguously supports a


permanent seat for Japan on the United
Nations Security Council.
Some other Asian nations have
expressed support for Japan's application,
including Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the
Philippines, and Vietnam.

The other G4 countries, Germany, Brazil, and


India, who are also bidding for Security Council
seats, along with France and the United Kingdom,
also back Japan's bid.
Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States
of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands,
Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New
Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga,
Tuvalu, and Vanuatu support Japan since Japan
agreed to increase financial aid to the region, even
though some of these countries are very
concerned with Japanese whaling in the region.

Road to Security Council


Reform
In 1993, the Open-ended
Working Group on Security
Council Reform
(OEWG) was established.
In 2005, the G4 countries
(Brazil, Germany, India and
Japan) and other groups
made proposals for
Security Council reform,
but none of these
proposals was acted upon.

Since February 2009, momentum has been


regained
through the intergovernmental negotiations on
Security Council reform in the UN General
Assembly, where majority of the Member States
expressed the need for reform through its many
rounds of negotiation.

You might also like