Women account for half the population and play a vital role in the productive activities of society. Real progress in the developing world thus demands that women have the power to exercise their abilities and fully reap the consequent benefits. Japan announced its Women in Development (WID) Initiative in 1995 at the fourth World Women's Conference in Beijing. That initiative urges that efforts in development assistance devote attention to the task of erasing gender inequalities and improving the status of women in society, and calls for expanded levels of assistance in the WID field, with priority on (i) education, (ii) health, and (iii) participation in economic and social affairs. To achieve these goals, Japan has begun actively implementing projects designed to improve the benefits for women. In addition, it now strives to place more emphasis on the empowerment of women at the project formulation and implementation stages by having specialists in gender and WID issues participate, or by conducting hearings aimed at obtaining the views and opinions of residents (particularly women) in areas targeted for aid.

Drug abuse is another problem that demands a concerted international response. Japan has for some time been providing assistance on various fronts to address the issue of drug abuse in the developing world. In particular, the Five-Year Drug Abuse Prevention Strategy in Japan that it unveiled in May 1998 calls for stronger efforts in crime prevention and drug control, assistance for educational programs and the cultivation of alternative crops, and closer cooperation with the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). In FY 1997, Japan contributed $5 million to the UNDCP. On top of that, it has furnished grant aid for increasing food production (800 million yen in July 1998) and technical cooperation to encourage the cultivation of alternative crops in Myanmar, one country that has been pursuing drug control measures in collaboration with the UNDCP.

At the UN Special Session on Drugs in June 1998, Japan in principle approved the idea underlying the UNDCP proposal for a global strategy to wipe out drug abuse by 2008. To that end, Japan in the years ahead will face the necessity of pursuing international cooperation under its own Five-Year Drug Abuse Prevention Strategy in Japan and exploring ways of putting the new UNDCP strategy into effect.

Then-Foreign State Secretary Koumura speaking at the UN Special Session on Drugs in June 1998