The concept of "human security" was first introduced in the U.N. Development Programme's (UNDP) "1993 Human Development Report" to focus on the safety of individuals in a way distinct from national security.
In 1998, then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, pointing out the importance of the people-centered security concept, endeavored to set human security as one of Japan's foreign policy pillars. In 1999, under Obuchi's leadership, the Trust Fund for Human Security was established in the United Nations. In 2000, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori announced the expansion of the fund, helping the United Nations establish a commission on human security in 2001 with former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata appointed a co-chair.
The fundamental idea behind human security is to protect people's right to live in dignity, free from "fear" and "want," with not only their own governments but also the international community obliged to safeguard the right.
Nonetheless, the international community didn't fully welcome the notion of human security in the early stage. In the early 2000s, the United Nations had rounds of discussion on the "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) doctrine as well. The R2P approach envisaged measures ultimately including humanitarian intervention with the use of force. Developing countries became wary of the R2P doctrine as they were afraid of being subject to intervention. They remained cautious about human security as something akin to the R2P doctrine.
Subsequently, there was no headway in the R2P discussion. When the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution on the situation of Libya in 2011, there was a mention of R2P-based measures. However, the U.N.-sanctioned intervention in Libya ended up worsening the situation there, making countries that had once advocated the R2P doctrine reluctant to repeat similar interventions.
Against such backgrounds, I would like to reconsider the concept of human security and look into what is necessary to live in dignity in today's world. In this connection, I will refer to what Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have done, and are doing, to advance human security.
The first key component of human security is "freedom from fear," which is related to peace and order. Japan and JICA have made contributions in this area.
In Mindanao, the Philippines, Muslim insurgents and government troops have been engaged in fighting for nearly 50 years, with more than 100,000 people reportedly killed. Japan, for its part, has promoted dialogues between the insurgents and the Philippine government. JICA has especially extended livelihood support to local people living in conflict-affected communities. Since 2018, concrete efforts have been under way in Mindanao to create an autonomous regional government.
The enormous number of refugees in need of support in the world is another important issue. In the past, many countries did not allow refugees to work in their societies, to avert a situation in which local residents and refugees would compete for job opportunities. But the current circumstances surrounding refugees are different from those of the past. In Jordan, Japan offered vocational training to refugees staying in the kingdom. In Uganda, JICA, in cooperation with the host government, has provided training in rice cultivation techniques at refugee settlements with a view to promoting their coexistence with local residents.
People's right to be protected through the rule of law is the pivotal aspect of human rights. The Japanese government and JICA have been engaged in legal and judicial improvement cooperation in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, among others. Japan has a history of introducing foreign laws, dating back to the Meiji era (1868-1912). Capitalizing on such experience, we have been able to help mainly former socialist countries establish the rule of law.
To contribute to increasing community safety, JICA has provided Indonesia and Brazil with koban (police box) installation projects as part of those countries' efforts to ensure social stability. Those projects have been greatly appreciated as an effective crime prevention measure.
Further, it is important to spread the culture of reconciliation for establishing peace. JICA has helped South Sudan organize national sports events as a way of easing tribal feuds. The athletic meets are aimed to help people in the African country become aware, with the help of sports, that they are all compatriots living on the same soil. This is one of the new efforts to advance human security.
To persuade people in host countries to really understand the good of reconciliation, we encourage them to know that the level of bloodshed during the Meiji Restoration was surprisingly low, that the Meiji government recruited competent people from the Tokugawa shogunate it had overthrown, and that despite being defeated in World War II, Japanese people devoted all their energy to postwar reconstruction instead of detesting the United States.
The second key component of human security is "freedom from want." It is related to the issues of poverty, health and education.
One of the cases in this category is Japan's "boshi techo" (maternal and child health handbook) system, which continues to be adopted by foreign countries, as an important tool to keep mothers and children healthy. Japan also globally promotes the introduction of universal health insurance systems, such as the one that has been in place in Japan itself for decades now, to enable everyone to receive health services.
In many developing countries, we have cooperated with governments in building hospitals. The Japanese private sector is also involved in combating epidemics in developing countries. For example, Sumitomo Chemical Co. is well known for having developed an insecticide-treated mosquito net that contributes to malaria prevention.
In the area of clean water supplies, which are indispensable to healthy life, Japan supported Cambodia's plan to set up a safe and stable water supply system for its capital, which has been praised as "the Miracle of Phnom Penh."
The next issue concerns nutrition. In the past, the main challenge was to survive famine. But it has become known that caloric intake is not sufficient to overcome stunted growth -- what is essential is balanced nutrition. JICA has intensified its activities in this area since 2016 when it embarked on the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA), a plan to promote improved nutrition in Africa's child population of about 200 million.
In the field of education, a project is under way in Egypt to build a total of 200 Japanese-style primary schools, where students clean their classrooms. In most countries of the world, the elite usually do not clean such places. As such, it is revolutionary for everyone to take part in the cleaning activity. Also, those Japanese-style schools have such subjects as drawing and crafts, physical education, homemaking and music, all of which are commonly taught in Japanese primary schools. All of those Japanese methods are appreciated as an effective approach to fostering teamwork.
In some African countries, JICA has initiated an educational development project, named "School for All," with the help of communities, with each school functioning as the hub of its surrounding community, to improve children's learning environments and provide school lunches. In Japan, school lunches once served a society struggling to recover from the devastation of war. Now in Africa, many children who cannot afford to eat enough a day are benefiting from school lunches.
As part of educational development cooperation, we help teachers improve their quality of teaching. The reason for this is that there are not a few teachers who teach children without sufficient understanding while simply reading out of textbooks, with students taking notes as they are told.
Moreover, JICA helps schools in developing countries install toilets, an important element of school infrastructure. Toilets are important indeed not only for improving the level of sanitation but also for doing away with long-standing social stratification. In this regard, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched his "Clean India" campaign to modernize toilets in his country. JICA intends to actively cooperate with the Indian campaign.
How long should educational support last? Information technology has advanced, and will advance, so significantly that there are many scenarios in which the nine-year duration of compulsory education, as in the case of Japan, appears to be insufficient. As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a June 29 press conference as the chair of the Group of 20 Summit in Osaka, the leaders participating in the summit affirmed their determination to aim for a world where all girls and women can have access to quality education for at least 12 years. This is also an area pertaining to human security.
To realize the levels of health and education as mentioned above, a minimum level of infrastructure, such as residential roads and bridges as well as electricity, is imperative. When electricity is available, children now can enjoy instant Internet access to New York or Tokyo.
Human security is one of the most important pillars of JICA's mission. Japan has been highly evaluated and praised by most of the world, excluding a few neighboring countries of Japan. I think much of the global praise results from what has been achieved in Japan's steady human security-related activities in various countries to date.
Regrettably, I have to admit that Japan's budgetary allocations for overseas cooperation are not sufficient. Its ratio of official development assistance (ODA) to gross national income (GNI) stood at 0.28 percent in the preliminary figures for 2018, which was very far below the target of 0.70 percent proposed by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). As a result, Japan was ranked 16th among the 29 member countries of the DAC. As Japan's ODA disbursements include those for many large-scale infrastructure projects, among others, the level of actual budgetary expenditures earmarked for human security-related activities has been embarrassingly low, depending on the fields.
Once Japan is determined to increase human security-related spending, notwithstanding its current fiscal constraints, Japan will certainly be able to get closer to achieving the goal illustrated by a part of the preamble of the Constitution: "We desire to occupy an honored place in an international society..."
Kitaoka is president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, specializing in Japanese political and diplomatic history. He was Japan's ambassador to the United Nations in 2004-06. He serves or has served on a variety of government panels, including as chair of the council set up by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in August 2018 to establish a "Long-Term Growth Strategy under the Paris Agreement," deputy chair of the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security in 2013-14 and deputy chair of the Advisory Panel on the History of the 20th Century and on Japan's Role and the World Order in the 21st Century.
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