Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality
Exchange of views on Women, Peace and Security(WPS) between Foreign Minister Kamikawa and the U.S. Representatives
On January 12th, commencing at 9:00 a.m. (January 12th, 11:00 p.m. Japan time) for approximately 45 minutes, Ms. KAMIKAWA Yoko, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, who was visiting the United States of America, exchanged views on Women, Pease and Security (WPS) with U.S. Representatives, Representaive Lois Frankel (Democratic, Florida) and Representative Jen Kiggans (Republican, Virginia), who are co-chairs of bipartisan WPS Congressional Caucus and others. The overview of the meeting is as follows.
- At the outset, the Caucus expressed strong interest in Japan's WPS promotion under the leadership of Minister Kamikawa. Minister Kamikawa in response explained the experience of establishing a WPS parliamentary league in Japan and other Japan’s efforts to promote WPS since assuming the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. In particular, Minister Kamikawa explained the current status of WPS in Japan and stated that she has been holding a series of dialogues under the title of “WPS+I(Innovation)” with relevant parties when visiting abroad to promote WPS to the next level and that during her visit to Europe in this January, she heard directly from women and children of Ukraine and renewed her determination to take concrete actions. She also expressed her hope to continue to learn from the efforts of U.S.
- Then, Minister Kamikawa had a lively exchange of views on U.S. parliamentariy and government’s efforts regarding WPS and various issues in the international society with Representative Frankel and Representative Kiggans as well as Ms. Melanne Verveer, the Executive Director of the Georgetown University Institute for Women, Peace and Security, and Ms. Geeta Rao Gupta, Ambassador at large for the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State, who are both present in the meeting. They shared hope for further strengthening of cooperation between Japan and U.S..
- Minister Kamikawa in her concluding remarks stated that she received various opinions and suggestions at this exchange meeting and that she would like to promote WPS further while deepening cooperation between Japan and the U.S. on WPS.
In 2000, for the first time in the Security Council's history, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted "Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Resolution 1325," which clearly stated that international peace, conflict revention, and conflict resolution require the equal participation of women, protection from sexual violence in conflict, and gender equality. To implement this resolution and subsequent resolutions, Japan formulated the first national action plan in 2015, the second in 2019, and the third in 2023.