Japan Values Action to Eradicate Child Poverty
(Letter written in response to the article on child poverty in the Financial Times on 12 March 2001)
By Mr. Kaoru Ishikawa
Deputy Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan
Sir, In your article "Trying times in war against poverty", the policy director of Save the Children expressed regret at the absence of the US and Japan from the International Action Against Child Poverty conference. This gives the impression that my country did not participate because it did not recognise the importance of child poverty.
The invitation to Japan arrived with some two weeks' notice. I may respectfully remind you that a one-day session in Europe takes four days for participants from the "Far East". With such a short notice, any country may find it difficult to send the minister of finance, especially when the budget committee in the parliament is discussing the budget for the new fiscal year (starting on April 1).
Indeed, I am afraid that the absence of Japan, the biggest donor country, with its $15.3bn development assistance (which accounts for 27.3 per cent of total development assistance from all the highly industrialised countries), may have put a little damper on the success of the ambitious conference. I believe productive and meaningful conferences must be really action-oriented, with a firm commitment from donor countries to mobilise human and financial resources. I sincerely hope your readers will be relieved to find that Japan is actually pursuing the fight against poverty with the following concrete actions.
At the G8 Okinawa summit last July, Japan launched its own initiative, amounting to $3bn during the next five years, in the fight against infectious and parasitic diseases. I myself, in my capacity as Foreign Affairs Sous-Sherpa of the G8 summit, called on other member countries to join the Japanese initiative, which they have done. Japan also recently dispatched a joint mission with the US to Tanzania to identify and formulate new projects in the health sector. Japan has also donated $10m(for year 2000) under the auspices of Mr Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary-general, to support the activities of non-governmental organisations in this field. Needless to add that children should be the main beneficiaries of these actions.
Japan launched the Okinawa IT initiative to bridge the digital divide daunting the developing world, amounting to $15bn in the next five years. Missions have been sent to Asia and others are expected to be dispatched to Africa soon. Some concrete supports have already been realised, of which education is a pillar. Japan is also the biggest contributor to debt relief under the enhanced highly indebted poor countries initiative.
I hope your readers will understand that all these pragmatic approaches of Japan are aimed at achieving robust, broad-based and equitable economic growth in the fight against poverty. I most humbly add that my country prefers extending concrete hands of solidarity to those in need to just murmuring sympathetic phrases.
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