Section 3. Strengthening of the U.N. and Japan's Cooperation
Japan, whose national policy is to seek peace and to share prosperity with the rest of the world, hopes that the United Nations and its specialized agencies will fulfill their functions effectively to maintain the peace of the world and also play their roles in the economic, social and cultural fields in order to realize a harmonious development of the world. From such a viewpoint, the realization of the entry of the People's Republic of China into the United Nations at the General Assembly in the autumn of 1971 can be said to mean that the United Nations has taken a step closer to the ideal of universality. It is hoped that the People's Republic of China hereafter will fully realize its responsibility, especially as a permanent member of the Security Council, and contribute to the strengthening of the United Nations.
Apprehensive that the United Nations, after the passage of a quarter of a century since its formation, tends to be removed from the realities of world politics and lacks, in particular, the ability to cope effectively with an international crisis, Japan has for some time been calling for a reexamination of what the United Nations should be, including a revision of the U.N. Charter to strengthen the functions of the United Nations in order to improve its effectiveness, and has made various concrete proposals to this end. It is hoped that a movement will develop within the United Nations for serious discussion of these proposals in the future and that various countries will make even greater efforts to strengthen the United Nations.
One of the various important roles expected of the United Nations is the achievement of disarmament. Although the peace of the world today is basically being maintained on the basis of the balance of power between the major nuclear powers, a peace maintained in this way is, so to speak, nothing more than a no-war state based on terror and is far from a true and lasting peace, Japan has been participating in the Disarmament Commission in Geneva since 1969. As a country whose national policy is to live as a peace-loving nation and whose ideal is the achievement of true peace, Japan intends to endeavor, through the Commission and in the various forums of the United Nations, to promote disarmament by seizing every opportunity and to call on the nuclear-armed countries, especially, to carry out nuclear disarmament in good faith.
One function of the United Nations and its specialized agencies that has been growing in importance of late is the adjustment of the various problems arising out of the development of science and technology. Especially such problems as the peaceful uses of atomic energy, the peaceful uses of outer space and the ocean floor, and international cooperation for the environmental protection of mankind have moved into the spotlight as new and important fields of diplomacy. The environmental problem, in particular, demands international cooperation in view of the recent spread of pollution over wide areas involving several countries and the phenomenon of environmental pollution on a global scale. The role to be played by the United Nations, or its specialized agencies, to secure the joint efforts of various countries to cope with such problems will be a most suitable one for the United Nations. Japan takes great interest in such problems because of its geographical conditions and the present situation of its economic development, and it will not spare its cooperation in the activities of the United Nations or its specialized agencies in this field.