Press Releases
Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Uesugi's attendance at the UN Women Donor Roundtable
and the G7 Care Work Conference
April 11, 2022
UN Women Donor Roundtable
G7 Care Work Conference
Parliamentary Vice-Minister Uesugi with Ms. Svenja Schulze,German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development
On April 6 and 7, Mr. UESUGI Kentaro, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, attended the UN Women Donor Roundtable and the G7 Care Work Conference held in Berlin, Germany. A summary is as follows.
- On the afternoon of April 6 and the morning of April 7, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and UN Women hosted the third UN Women Donor Roundtable. The representatives of 23 donor countries exchanged their views on strengthening UN Women's structure and activities, and their political and financial support for achieving gender equality. Mr. Uesugi appealed that Japan has been proactively supporting women and girls through UN Women, and that the Government of Japan prioritized the promotion of gender equality.
- On the afternoon of April 7, the G7 Care Work Conference was held, co-hosted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, UN Women, and International Labour Organisation (ILO). The conference included presentations and panel discussions on gender equality and care work sector (housework, childcare, nursing care, etc.) in international cooperation. As a panelist, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Uesugi presented Japan's efforts to eliminate gender disparities in care work through its ODA and stated that Japan would like to continue development cooperation to reduce the burden of unpaid care work discharged by women.
- Furthermore, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Uesugi held a meeting with H.E. Dr. Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, and reaffirmed that they would strengthen cooperation between Japan and UN Women in order to achieve gender equality in Japan and the international community.
- During his stay in Berlin, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Uesugi also met with German government officials (Ms. Svenja Schulze, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Mr. Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and Dr. Baerbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) and members of Bundestag (Mr. Michael Roth, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Bundestag, and Mr. Juergen Hardt, Foreign Policy Spokesperson of the CDU/CSU Parliamentarian Group). Both sides confirmed that they would further strengthen Japan-Germany relationship and exchanged views on various issues on bilateral relations and regional issues, including Ukraine.