Japan's Efforts on the Issue of Landmines

February 2003

Japan will complete the destruction of its stockpile of approximately one million anti-personnel landmines, as it is required to do by the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (The Ottawa Convention), by February 8, 2003. A ceremony is scheduled to be held on the same day to commemorate the completion of destruction. (The deadline for completing the destruction is the end of February.) The following is an outline of Japan's efforts so far relating to the Ottawa Convention and support for anti-landmine measures.

1. The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (The Ottawa Convention)

(1) Under the leadership of then Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Japan concluded the Ottawa Convention on September 30, 1998. Since then, whenever the opportunity has arisen, Japan has called on countries that are not parties to the Convention to participate. Japan's efforts so far have included the co-hosting, along with nongovernmental organizations and others, of a seminar in Tokyo in November 2000 and the co-sponsoring of a seminar in Bangkok in May 2002 aimed at urging countries in Asia that are not parties to the Convention to join.

(2) Japan served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance during the 2000-01 activity period and attended, as deputy chair, the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Convention held in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, in September 2001, serving on that occasion as the co-chair of the session on assistance to landmine victims. At the Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the Convention held in Geneva in September 2002, it was decided that Japan, along with Cambodia, would be appointed as a co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance in the activity period from 2002 to 2003.

2. Support for Anti-landmine Measures

Toward the solution of the anti-personnel landmine problem, Japan proposed the Zero Victims Program at the signing ceremony of the Ottawa Convention in Ottawa in December 1997 and has been promoting a comprehensive approach based on the two axles of realizing a universal and effective ban on landmines and strengthening mine clearance activities and assistance for victims. Specifically, Japan announced that it would provide assistance of about _10 billion over the five years from 1998 for mine clearance and victim assistance. Japan achieved this target of 10 billion yen at the end of October 2002.