Press Conference by the Press Secretary 2 November, 1999

1. Statement on the demise of former Ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Peru Anthony G. Vincent
2. Meeting between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Federal Republic of Germany and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi
3. Government of Japan's position in regard to press reports on the possibility of rigging at the election for the Director-General of UNESCO
4. Other issues concerning UNESCO

1. Statement on the demise of former Ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Peru Anthony G. Vincent

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. Firstly, former Canadian Ambassador to the Republic of Peru Anthony G. Vincent passed away, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono issued a message of condolence on this. As you may recall, Ambassador Vincent, who was currently Canadian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain, was Ambassador to Peru when the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima was seized and occupied by terrorists. In the efforts to resolve this crisis, Ambassador Vincent worked very intensively as a member of the Guarantor's Committee for the purpose of mediation to the peaceful solution of the incident. We learned with sadness that he passed away and we would like to express our heartfelt condolences to the members of his bereaved family. We would like to reiterate our gratitude and respect for Ambassador Vincent's great courage and excellent achievements as a diplomat and pray that his family will overcome their sorrow.

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2. Meeting between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Federal Republic of Germany and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi

   Mr. Numata: Second, a brief readout from the meeting between Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the Federal Republic of Germany and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, which took place on Thursday. They discussed the G8 Summit, Japan-Germany bilateral exchanges, some of the issues which confront both Japan and Germany as industrialized democracies and the international situation, including the reform of the United Nations. Also, they discussed the election of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). With respect to the G8 Summit, Prime Minister Obuchi expressed his appreciation for the important role played by Chancellor Schroeder as the Chairman of the G8 Summit in Cologne. Prime Minister Obuchi expressed his intention to do his utmost for the success of the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit next year. He expressed his intention to work closely with Chancellor Schroeder as the Chairmanship of the G8 will pass on from Germany to Japan at the turn of the year.

   They also discussed intensifying bilateral exchanges between Japan and Germany. Prime Minister Obuchi said that he looked forward to an early visit by Minister for Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer of the Federal Republic of Germany to Japan, and Chancellor Schroeder responded that he hoped Foreign Minister Fischer will be able to visit Japan at an early date, which is to be worked out. They also discussed further activating exchanges between the parliamentarians of Japan and Germany. They also discussed youth exchange, including this working holiday scheme for which they both shared the hope that it will be started sometime next spring. They also discussed the Japan in Germany Year, which was formally inaugurated in Berlin on 27 September, with the attendance of President Johannes Rau of the Federal Republic of Germany and Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino. They also discussed the idea of consultations between Japan and Germany on employment and labor issues comprising representatives of the Governments and labor unions and the employers associations on both sides. In fact, this is an idea which Chancellor Schroeder proposed and Prime Minister Obuchi said he was agreeable to the idea and would go about studying how to implement this.

   That in fact covers the common issues facing Japan and Germany, because as industrialized democracies both Japan and Germany face the problem of employment and the aging society. With respect to the aging society, Prime Minister Obuchi referred to the reforms taking place in Japan with respect to this whole question of nursing care insurance for the aged, pension reforms and social security reforms. Prime Minister Obuchi said that in the area of nursing insurance, Germany is at the forefront among the industrialized democracies and Japan may have quite a lot to learn from Germany's experience.

   With respect to United Nations reform, especially the Security Council reform, Prime Minister Obuchi said that Japan does feel that it is important to enhance the functions of the Security Council so that it will be able to respond effectively to the challenges facing the international community. Prime Minister Obuchi noted that Japan and Germany share a similar position in the sense that they both aspire to play or discharge greater responsibilities as permanent members of the Security Council in such reform efforts. Prime Minister Obuchi also said that we do need momentum to bring about United Nations reform. The Millennium Summit that will take place in the context of the General Assembly next year, will provide an important juncture, so it was his desire to work very closely together with Germany towards the early he too shared the desire to work closely with Japan for the realization of the United Nations reform and Germany, for its part, would welcome becoming a permanent member of the Security Council.

   They also exchanged views on other aspects of the international situation, such as Kosovo, in which Japan and Germany share an interest in promoting rehabilitation and construction assistance, as well as on the situations in the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China.

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3. Government of Japan's position in regard to press reports on the possibility of rigging at the election for the Director-General of UNESCO

   Mr. Numata: My next comment refers to the election of the Director-General of UNESCO. About a week and a half ago, my deputy, Mr. Harada talked about this. We note that in the media reports about this election there have been some groundless and biased accusations and I wish to set the record straight.

   Firstly, there have been some comments about the "aggressive campaign" launched by Japan. Needless to say UNESCO is an inter-governmental body and the candidature of the Director-General must be submitted by the Government and the members of the Executive Board who cast votes are appointed by their respective governments. It was quite natural that the Government of Japan, which wishes to make greater contributions in the fields of education, culture, science and communication invested a lot of time and effort in this campaign and has conducted and managed the campaign systematically. It was the result of its serious attitude towards these contributions through UNESCO that Japan was able to garner overwhelming support from all regions through the three rounds of voting.

   Secondly, the Government of Japan strongly disputes the allegations that Japan rigged the votes. This, we feel, is an insult to the voting nations in the Executive Boards of UNESCO. There has been some negative campaigning, which stressed that Japan bought its influence as the top donor to UNESCO and to the developing world. Japan has never used such contributions and development assistance as a measure to win the votes. Japan, at the same time, takes pride in the fact that it has contributed to the benefit of the world through its economic cooperation. In fact, far from penalizing Japan for this, the international community has encouraged Japan to continue such efforts. I would also note that the actual voting in the Executive Board was conducted in complete secrecy and in a democratic manner. All 58 members of the Board had complete privacy, which gave them the ability to freely choose the best candidate and the result was that an overwhelming majority of the members voted for Japanese Ambassador to France Koichiro Matsuura.

   With respect to what Ambassador Matsuura wishes to do when he accedes to the post of Director-General, obviously the results of the election indicate that his perspectives on various aspects concerning UNESCO have gained support from many quarters of the world. During the election campaign he visited 38 countries and had exchanges of views not only with government officials, but also with scholars and intellectuals. He also visited 20 field offices of UNESCO around the world to see with his own eyes how effectively such offices were operating. Through these visits and discussions, he has developed a full and wide understanding and also his own vision of UNESCO to lead it into the next millennium. His desire as the Director-General is to restore the prestige of UNESCO by sharply focusing on priority activities and by redressing existing structure, which is often described as a rather top-heavy inverse pyramid of the organization. To achieve this objective he needs the cooperation of all parties concerned with UNESCO. The Government of Japan reiterates its unwavering support for Ambassador Matsuura and asks for all related countries' cooperation with Ambassador Matsuura to revitalize UNESCO.

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4. Other issues concerning UNESCO

   Q: You just mentioned the election of Ambassador Matsuura to UNESCO. What do you mean exactly by "redressing inverse pyramids of the organization"? Could you elaborate on that?

   Mr. Numata: Firstly, in his platform for the elections he mentioned six main points and the sixth point was improving efficiency and transparency. There have been a lot of questions raised about how efficiently UNESCO is being run. When I talk about UNESCO, I mean not just its headquarters but the field offices as well. If you look at the question of management in UNESCO it seems that there are a number of people at the top -- the cause of this rather top-heavy configuration. It has been said that there has been some confusion in the lines of command and so forth, so this needs to be straightened. That is what is meant by redressing the deficiencies as far as the management of UNESCO is concerned. This is something that Ambassador Matsuura has come to focus on, as he is examining in detail the actual operation of UNESCO through having been in Paris observing the activities of UNESCO at close hand as far as the headquarters is concerned, and through having visited 20 field offices that are dispersed throughout the world. I might also say that in the context of improving the efficiency of UNESCO, there is one other important aspect, that is how you put priorities among the various tasks which UNESCO is entrusted with. UNESCO has a very broad mandate. It has a mandate which encompasses education, culture, science and communications, but its budget and its staff are not limitless. It has a budget of $400 million per year, which is not very large and it has a staff of about 2,000 people at the headquarters and about 500 in branch offices. There does arise the need for setting clear priorities among the various tasks entrusted to UNESCO. This is something that Ambassador Matsuura would like to focus on in close collaboration with the Executive Board and the Secretariat.

   Q: I understand that Chancellor Schroeder has mentioned the UNESCO issue with Prime Minister Obuchi?

   Mr. Numata: Yes, that was in the context of Prime Minister Obuchi expressing Japan's appreciation for Germany's support for Ambassador Matsuura's candidature and also expressing the hope that we will be able to work closely together with Germany towards the reform of UNESCO. Chancellor Schroeder responded by saying that Germany supported Ambassador Matsuura because Germany appreciated Japan's policy vis-a-vis UNESCO.

   Q: In regard to the framework of reform of the United Nations, will UNESCO be a joint target for Japan and Germany?

   Mr. Numata: To the extent that UNESCO is a member of the United Nations family, it is an important element, but when we talk about the United Nations reform, we feel that there are three major areas involved. One is the financial and administrative reform of the United Nations system as a whole. Second is the Security Council reform, which I have touched on and the third is the reform of the United Nations in the area of economic and social activities. Japan has been consistent in taking a position that all these three reforms need to be pursued in parallel. The fact that UNESCO is an important part of the United Nations system also means that the role of UNESCO needs to be seen in the context of the importance of education, culture, science and communications for the stability and prosperity of the world as a whole. Whoever is to head that organization would need a considerable experience and accumulated wisdom with respect to various aspects of the international community. In that sense we feel that Ambassador Matsuura's experience as somebody who has been a very active diplomat for 40 years and has also served as a G7 sherpa and who also headed the Economic Cooperation Bureau, which is in fact the aid administration organ in Japan which has been the world's top donor for quite some time. We do feel that his achievement and accumulated wisdom in all these fields will be enormously helpful as he tries to discharge his new responsibilities as Director-General of UNESCO.

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