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Letter written in response to the article in Washington Times on Myanmar Issues

By Ryuichiro Yamazaki
Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan

Sir,
Your editorial on November 26, which refer to deliberation on the issue of forced labor in Myanmar in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Governing Body, does not reflect Japan's position correctly. The editorial claims that "nations that sought to water down the ILO action ....including democracies like Japan" will have to explain themselves.

　Japan shares the view with the rest of the international community that democratization in Myanmar must be achieved. Japan has been cooperating with the ILO to improve labor conditions in various countries, which is the most important objective of the Organization. In order to resolve the forced labor issue in Myanmar, we have made various diplomatic efforts directly and indirectly, encouraging the Myanmar Government to cooperate with the ILO to take positive steps on this issue.

　 In the last Governing Body session of the ILO, Japan expressed the view that the implementation of measures stipulated in the resolution of the International Labor Conference should be postponed, since the Myanmar Government, as noted in the ILO Technical Cooperation Mission report, has made progress by taking legislative measures, and thus we should wait to see how the measures are implemented. We thought the resolution, if implemented, would not have a positive effect on efforts to tackle the forced labor issue.

　In the statement issued following the Governing Body session, the Government of Myanmar, while rejecting the resolution of the Governing Body, expressed its commitment that it will continue to adhere to and implement measures announced so far to prohibit the use of forced labor. We hope that Myanmar fulfils this commitment and that relations between Myanmar and the ILO show steady improvement.