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\u3000The panel discussion was held by six experienced practitioners of peace keeping operations and moderated by Professor Akiko Fukushima of Aoyama Gakuin University. The panelists were from right to left: Akio Miyajima, Director-General of the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters of Cabinet Office, Ryoichi Oriki, former Integrated Staff Director of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Yasushi Akashi, former Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Cambodia, Sukehiro Hasegawa, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste, Yoshifumi Okamura, Ambassador for TICAD, UN Reform and Human Rights, and Toshiya Hoshino, Professor of Graduate School of Osaka University.<\/p>\n
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\u3000The followings are some of the key points made during the panel discussion on Japan`s future international peace cooperation. They are compiled mostly from a Japanese language summary of the panel discussion produced by the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters of Cabinet Office, but do not constitute an official translation. The official Japanese summary text follows after the English text. <\/p>\n
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\u30fb\t The issues and challenges in international peace cooperation of Japan come down to the authority to use weapons. As the mandate of the PKO has been transformed to include difficult and complicated tasks such as the protection of civilians, it has become difficult to make a judgment on maintenance of neutrality and use of weapons.<\/p>\n
\u30fb\tWhen the UN PKO mission is given a civilian protection mandate, the United Nations itself may need to use weapons to ensure justice and human rights. If the civilians on one side of opposing forces are exposed to threats, as in the case of Cote d’Ivoire and South Sudan, the United Nations could be placed in a difficult position as it may need to use weapons to protect those civilians. Under these circumstances, there is a need to thoroughly examine the relationship between the United Nations’ three principles of peacekeeping and the Japan’s five principles for participation (in PKO).<\/p>\n
\u30fb\tAlthough recent developments in Japan’s legislation to legalize “kaketsuke keigo<\/em>” (coming to the aid of PKO-related individuals upon urgent requests when unexpected dangers are imminent<\/em>) and “joint protection of camps”, there are still many issues to be solved. It is essential that the tasks should be implemented without imposing burdens on those on the ground. It is necessary for Japan to establish a national strategy on UN PKO properly, and to consider purposes and targets of the deployment, and the extent of commitment Japan should make, keeping in mind its national interest to protect when Japanese personnel are deployed.<\/p>\n \u30fb\tThe issues and challenges of the United Nations PKO include such issues as requiring long time to dispatch, low level of mobility and code of conduct, crisis management and preparation for civilian protection have been carried out on an ad hoc basis without proper coordination in advance. It can also be pointed out that consistency of activities among civil, military and police components in the UN mission and humanitarian development agencies are not sufficient, that medical units and facilities are immature, and that they rely too much on military means.<\/p>\n \u30fb\t As a result of the termination of deployment of Japanese PKO troops, opportunities to learn know-how and operations of overseas deployment have decreased. On the other hand, recognizing the importance of overseas deployment,deployment, in view of the increasingly severer security environment around Japan, it is necessary to consider what should be our priority and how to place overseas deployment of the SDF in our overall security policy.<\/p>\n \u30fb\t Since communications between the headquarters and field missions are indispensable in the United Nations, it is important to develop human resources who have knowledge and expertise that can make judgments with understanding positions of the headquarters and without making major mistakes in the field.<\/p>\n <\/br><\/br><\/p>\n \u30fb\tEven under the robust PKO mandate, construction\/rehabilitation of infrastructure and logistics support that Japan is good at continue to be necessary.<\/p>\n \u30fb\tWe should be confident in Japanese quality of being well-disciplined to work properly and produce results. Capacity building of local staff, manufacturing, collaborative activities with Japanese ODA are also the strength of Japanese PKO.<\/p>\n \u30fb\tJapan has advantages in the fields of technology, communications and operational capabilities, not only in software but also in hardware. Also, although it may take some time for Japan to take actual actions, it’s a distinct characteristics of Japan to carry out the work properly once we decide to do so.<\/p>\n \u30fb\tWe can be proud of the soft side of characteristics of the Japanese engineering units, \u3000which constitute basis for their technological strength: undertaking work attentively, working and sweating together with local people instead of showing bossy attitude to them, and keeping things tidy and in order. The United Nations has also shown their interest for Japan to provide ecological expertise and new technologies such as drones.<\/p>\n \u30fb\tJapan encourages local ownership (self-help efforts). In Asia, we have taken the approach of nurturing people and institutional frameworks to plant “seedlings of peace”, and we should fully make use of many experts with their know-how.<\/p>\n <\/br><\/br><\/p>\n