A chorus of calls for changes in discriminatory work laws is spreading across Japan in the aftermath of waves of lawsuits filed by short-contract workers.

Demonstrators protesting the firing of dispatch-contract workers. Credit: Tokyo Young Contingent Workers' Union

The interest in the plight of hundreds of thousands of labourers hired as temporary workers but doing regular work – with fewer benefits and at much cheaper cost to employers – is such that courtrooms where these cases are heard are often full.

Some 40 supporters of Shigemitsu Suzuki and Takayuki Hayashi, former workers at the Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp, trooped to the gallery of the courtroom at the Tokyo Higher Court for a hearing on their case on Jan. 26.

Last year, the two veteran production-line workers sued their former employer, which had abruptly fired them. Both in their late 30s, they had been working on dispatch contracts that had been renewed so often that they were working in the same capacity as the company’s full-time workers. Indirectly hired workers on dispatch contracts are called ‘haken’ in Japanese. One ‘haken’ worker, Fumiko Kondo, likened such labourers to trash, disposable at any time.

Suzuki and Hayashi are now asking the company to grant them full-time positions and compensation. “I was not sure, at first, if such an action would mean anything. But now I realise it is important to call for justice, telling people what is wrong,” Suzuki said at the filing of the suit last year.

Their lawyers claim that employers can hire people dispatched by temporary staffing agencies only for short-term and temporary work, and that it is illegal to keep dispatch-contract workers working continuously for more than three years.

In the wake of Suzuki and Hayashi’s legal action, dozens of similar court cases are now sweeping Japan, where unfair labour practices have been unveiled during the past years and are prompting workers to organise campaigns to lobby for changes in the law.

The appeals made in the different lawsuits vary. Some workers were paid much less than the amount promised, got paid late or were sent to do jobs different from what they were contracted for. Some were made to work long hours or under harsh or dangerous working conditions.

Others were kept on short contracts but did the same job for years, paid as temporary workers but engaged practically in regular jobs. They could be fired arbitrarily and with little, if any, safety nets to fall back on.

“It is always us who get fired first and very arbitrarily whenever business goes down,” says 42-year-old Kondo, a college-educated clerk in Tokyo who has worked in different offices on dispatch contracts for more than 10 years.

The rise of the use of ‘haken’ is linked to the dramatic transformation in Japan’s labour structure over the last 20 years. Amid the economic boom of the l980s, employers began hiring more temporary workers and downsizing regular, full-time workers on traditional lifetime employment in order to cut down on vast personnel costs.

During the recession of the early 1990s, companies continued to hire cheaper temporary workers. By then, this type of worker accounted for more than 20 percent of Japan’s employed labour force. It rose to 25 percent in 2000 and 30 percent in 2003, according to surveys by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. It hit a record 34.6 percent at the end of 2008.

Among those non-regular workers, the number of ‘haken’ workers alone had almost quadrupled to 3.81 million in 10 years.

As the U.S. financial crisis spread to the world in the fall of 2008, Japanese manufacturers rushed to shove dispatched and other short-contract workers out.

This happened especially in the automobile and electric appliance sectors. Called brutal ‘haken giri’ (the slashing of dispatch workers), the trend was reportedly widely in the media.

These jobless turned up at job placement offices or ended up homeless on the streets. Others camped at Internet cafés and some were driven to commit crimes.

Research by the government found that more than 150,000 non-regular workers were fired in the six-month period leading to March 2009. This trend continues to date. In December 2009, the government reported that 6,440 temporary jobs are expected to be lost by March this year, the end of the Japanese fiscal year.

This would put the total number of non-regular jobs lost in the 14 months to 256,731.

“The story goes back all the way to the birth of Dispatch Work Law that went into effect in 1986,” says Mami Nakano, a Tokyo lawyer who is chief coordinator for the Haken Work Network.

Despite protests by labour unions, that law allowed the use of workers on dispatch contracts in 13 business categories and allowed employers to “indirectly” hire professional or exclusively skilled workers – such as those in information technology — on ‘haken’ contracts with agencies.

Five years after the law came into effect, Nakano and her colleagues saw a notable surge in ‘haken’-related complaints and consultation calls from workers. They organised the Haken Work Network to focus on these issues, set up hotlines and analyse illegal practices, violation of human rights and lack of protection among dispatched workers.

Revisions in the law in l999 and in 2004 allowed the use of ‘haken’ in virtually all business sectors, including manufacturing .

Dispatched workers became easy prey for exploitation and a market- controlled transaction item, says Nakano. “Japanese employers came to take workers only from the viewpoint of cost. We need a system to provide justice equally for all workers. Otherwise, Japan will not survive in this century.”

Japan is still an “underdeveloped nation in labour law”, says Shigeru Wakita, a law professor at Ryukoku University in Kyoto.

He points out that Japanese employers protect full-time workers but not non-regular, atypical workers, unlike in European nations where wages and employment terms are provided on the basis of expected performance of specific jobs, no matter if full-time or part-time.

“The issue of dispatched workers is no longer a labour issue, but a social issue,” explains Wakita, among those who organised November’s ‘National Forum for Winning Rights of Non-Regular Workers’.

Local community unions are sprouting up across Japan and ‘haken’- specialised networks of unions and other groups are collaborating with them. Among these is the 380-member Tokyo Young Contingent Workers’ Union, which supports the workers Suzuki and Hayashi.

“A new movement is developing, this time by workers themselves, calling for the changes in dispatch work rules,” says Shuichiro Sekine, secretary of the Haken Union that has 300 dispatch-contract workers.

These groups are campaigning for changes in current laws under the new Democratic Party of Japan-led government. They want to see dispatch contracts barred from the manufacturing sector, employing companies take on more responsibilities and be subject to heavier penalties for violations.

Late last year, the Labour Policy Council submitted late a draft law on dispatch work arrangements to the minister of health, labour and welfare.

“We have to keep close watch so that the law will be revised in accordance with the ruling party’s earlier manifesto,” says Sekine of the Haken Union.

Japan may be one the world’ biggest economies, but it is not immune to poverty.

“Poverty has long existed in Japan and it is deteriorating in scale and depth dramatically in the past several years,” says Dr. Aya Abe, senior researcher of the Department of International Research and Cooperation at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Tokyo.

“Today, many children are living under extraordinary levels of poverty in Japan, as data show,” he says.

According to Masanori Matsumura, a primary school teacher for 30 years, a growing number of children in Japan today cannot even afford classroom supplies “such as paints or craft materials.” He adds, “The expanding poverty is hitting the most vulnerable victims – children.”

Matsumura, who is also an executive committee member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teachers’ Union, one of the biggest organisations of public school educators in the country, said his union conducted a survey in 2008 of its 30 local chapters on the problems confronting poor children. The emerging indicators of poverty were the same across city.

For instance, some parents, for fear of losing their jobs, could not take a single day off from work, preventing them from showing up at school meetings and related activities. Some of them were found to be working simultaneously on two or three different jobs.

Such a situation has its social costs. Children grow frustrated – even turn violent in some cases – when their parents are not around to take care of them because of the resulting neglect by parents. “The children consequently lose hope for the future, something they need,” says Matsumura.

The same survey showed many children could not even afford to pay for school lunches or join field trips. It cited the case of a 10-year-old boy who was found staying home to take care of an infant brother, since his single mother was out working.

Matsumura says no similar survey was conducted after 2008, but he believes the situation of the respondents has not only changed but has even gotten worse since then.

Although single-mother households accounted only for 4.1 percent of all household respondents with children, 66 percent of them were in relative poverty, with incomes less than 50 percent of the median net household income.

Most of these mothers take on more than one part-time, low-paying jobs, leaving them little time to spend with their children, says a social worker, who spoke to IPS on condition of anonymity, at the Welfare Section of the Kita- Ward Office in Tokyo.

“I have more inquiries from troubled parents, particularly from single mothers, year after year, asking about social services available to them,” she adds. Many of them are not aware of government subsidies to which they are entitled, she says, adding these are not being disseminated enough, the publicity budget for this purpose having been cut.

Japanese economy has suffered a lingering recession since the economic bubble burst in the early 1990s. In the past several years it has seen feeble flickers of recovery. The ensuing global financial crisis triggered by the stumbling of the U.S. financial system in 2007 and the collapse of its giant financial institutions in 2008 severely affected Japan alongside many other countries. Japan’s unemployment, for instance, rose from 3.8 percent in December 2007 to 5.7 percent in July 2009.

“The employment structure has drastically transformed in the past ten years,” points out Prof. Haruo Asai of the Community and Social Services Department at Rikkyo University (St. Paul University) in Tokyo.

Many employers shifted from once-traditional lifetime, full employment practices to hiring more contract workers, or temporary, part-time workers to avoid giving social service benefits, leaving non-regular workers unprotected.

By late 2008 part-time and contract workers had ballooned to nearly 35 percent of all workers, up from 20 percent in the 1980s, based on government data. Today, about half the country’s labour force under 24 years are non-regular workers, who have no job security as they are arbitrarily hired and fired with no standard employee benefits.

Japan’s rude awakening to the reality of poverty amid seeming affluence in some sectors of its society came about when, for the first time in 45 years, the government released in October 2009 data showing the extent of poverty gripping the country. Health, labour and welfare minister Akira Nagatsuma announced then that 15.7 percent of the Japanese people and 14.2 percent of Japanese children and teenagers under 17 were in relative poverty, citing a 2007 survey.

The first disturbing warning sign of Japanese children living in poverty came in 2006 following the release of the report, ‘Economic Survey of Japan 2006′, by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which undertakes such studies every five years.

Of the 30 OECD member countries, it said Japan ranked second to the United States in terms of children living in relative poverty, with 13.7 percent, up two percent from the l990s. Until then the Japanese public had long distanced itself from the notion of poverty, especially where it involved children.

The Japanese, along with the government, used to view poverty in absolute terms, that is, as a critical state of hunger or survival. It was only in 2006 when the East Asian country began to recognise the idea of “relative poverty.”

“For a long time the Japanese had maintained a firm belief that everyone was more or less in middle class, with no one having anything to do with poverty,” says Dr Abe. Children in poverty were often viewed as isolated cases, notes the author of a widely acclaimed book, ‘Poverty of Children’.

The seeming affluence of Japanese society belies images of children starving on the streets or children unable to go to school. After all, the law provides for compulsory education for children aged six to 15, and more than 90 percent of junior high school graduates belonging to the middle class are able to move on to senior high school. The nation’s medical insurance system covers everyone – in theory, at least – and millions of Japanese tourists are known to go each year on shopping sprees abroad with children in tow.

Yet, there are subtle yet very real indications of poverty, which afflicts children in particular. These are based on findings that have pointed to increasing poverty and widening economic disparity in Japan, based on the latest available data generated in 2008. Thousands of contract workers and part-time workers lost jobs, as the manufacturing industry cut production and the service industry shrank.

The local media, for instance, reported that 33,000 children across the nation did not have health insurance. There have also been reports that many parents could not pay for school lunches, bringing the total unpaid bills nationwide to two billion yen (23 million U.S. dollars).

Most elementary and high school students eat school lunch or ‘kyushoku’, with parents paying 250 to 300 yen (two to three dollars) for the ingredients and local authorities shouldering the labour costs.

Aggravating parents’ woes are what labor specialists described as “very poor social safety nets,” particularly for the emerging working population. The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry’ survey conducted in 2008 indicated that the average annual income of households with children was 6.91 million yen (74,000 U.S. dollars) on average, 92 percent of which came from wages. Only 0.8 percent of their income was from social security services.

Prof. Abe says Japan views the poor “as failures in competition who should be punished instead of cared for.”

Starting in 1995 the government, under the Liberal Democratic Party, began to cut social service budgets, which severely affected the poor. By 1998 suicide rates had risen for the first time to over 30,000. Many of the victims were family breadwinners.

Government did not recognise the need for social safety nets, resulting in disparity even for children, Prof. Asai tells IPS. “We need a society where people are taken care of well and children are provided equality in well- being,” he says.

The government’s decisions beginning in 2005 to reduce budgetary allocations to support children in need became one of a string of new policies transferring financial responsibilities to local municipalities.

For example, the national government used to provide school expense subsidy for qualified children at half the total cost, leaving the remainder to the local municipalities. Today, the government assumes only one-third of the subsidy, forcing some cash-strapped cities and towns to cut down their subsidies, thus deepening the disparity between rich and poor children across the country.

In an apparent attempt to address the prolonged economic difficulty confronting many Japanese families, the new government has enforced what are touted as “people-friendly measures and policies.” One of these is the grant of children’s uniform allowance equivalent to a monthly payout of 26,000 yen (300 dollars). A total of 5.3 trillion yen (56.85 million dollars) is being allocated for this purpose in the fiscal 2010 national budget.

Another policy guarantees free senior high school education for everyone, with the government pledging to pay 120,000 to 240,000 yen (1,287 to 2,574 dollars) for each student, depending on the schools’ and parents’ incomes.

Many, however, doubt if government can secure the needed funds to enforce these policies. “Simple payout or charity may be effective, but is not going to provide a final solution,” says Dr. Abe.

By Mutsuko Murakami
TOKYO, Jan 1 2010 (IPS)

Of approximately 170 peace museums that exist around the world, a third are found in Japan.

The Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University, located in Kyoto, is the only one in Japan housed in a higher educational institution. It captures the history of the country’s aggression as well as its tragic wartime experiences. The private university in Japan’s ancient capital was once an active advocate of the country’s belligerent behaviour during World War II.

In 1992 the university founded the Museum as part of its commitment to peace building. The Kyoto Museum has attracted more than 900,000 visitors. Today, it is widely known for its active peace education campaigns and collaborative programmes at home and across borders.

Considered a major force behind the Kyoto Museum is Dr Ikuro Anzai, who is also its first director. A trained physicist, he taught at a medical school before he was invited to teach international affairs at Ritsumeikan in l986.

Dr Anzai has since gained recognition as a leading scholar on peace studies. He now serves as director emeritus of the Nanjing Research Institute for International Peace at Nanjing University, China, which aims to gather historical documents on the atrocities committed by Japan during its occupation of China’s ancient capital in December 1937.

In 2008, the Museum hosted the 6th International Conference of Museums for Peace, which drew over 5,000 participants from more than 50 countries. Dr Anzai was a key mover in making the event possible. The first such conference was convened in l992 at Bradford, England, giving rise to the International Network of Museums for Peace (INMP), where he sits on the executive board.

The INMP plans to have the next international conference in 2010 in Barcelona, to be followed by another one two years later in The Hague.

In an interview with IPS, Prof Anzai discusses the important role of peace museums in the global peace efforts as well as the prospects and challenges involved.

Q: Why does Japan have so many peace museums? A: Our country’s aggressive pursuit of war left so many scars, not to mention memorial items to exhibit. Because of the war and partly because of the (Japanese) people’s tragic experiences of nuclear attacks [referring to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki], people developed a strong urge to pursue peace.

In 1978 the Japanese collected 30 million signatures for the first Special Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General Assembly. They have been a major force calling on local (prefectural) governments and cities to declare a nuclear-free status or build peace museums in cities and towns. Civil society in Japan has indeed demonstrated its capacity for peace building.

Q: You say peace museums can do more than document and depict historical facts on wars and their consequent human sufferings. What role do peace museums play in this regard? A: To promote “peace literacy” and contribute more effectively to peace building in the world, museums can organise lectures, film showings, research efforts, tours, peace conferences and touring exhibits, among others. We can build a network of such museums and support each other for the common cause, too.

Some peace museums in Japan are already sharing exhibit items among themselves and jointly organising new programmes. We have invited officials and curators of other Asian museums outside Japan to exchange experiences and ideas. Together we can do a lot more than the “cobweb”-style exhibits, where we only wait for people to come.

Q: What other factors steered peace museums in this new direction? A: We have seen the evolution of the concept of peace since Dr. Johan Galtung – the Norwegian scholar and founder of peace studies – redefined it during the l970s.

Peace is not just the absence of war, he says, but also of any form of violence, deprivation of human rights, environmental exploitation or cultural violence. We have shifted our emphasis at our museum from simple anti-war agenda to expansive peace studies. Some other peace museums have also adjusted to adopt this new definition of peace.

Q: What did the 2008 International Conference of Museums for Peace accomplish? What is the next step? A: In addition to the success of the conference itself, it led us to build a framework for its organising body, the INMP. We have made it a legal institution, created its constitution, appointed officials, built its membership system and set up the administrative office in The Hague. Prof Peter van den Dungen of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford (in Britain) acts as its general coordinator. Such institutionalising process provides us with a solid base for further development in the future. Through the INMP, we can strengthen our unity, expand our peace studies in collaboration (with similar institutions) and help new museums to be launched.

Q: You have established strong ties with the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which shows the gross injustice committed by the Japanese military in China in 1937. Has there been any progress in the reconciliatory process between China and Japan through efforts like yours? A: Although the Nanjing Massacre Museum (the largest museum of its kind in the world) depicts massacre and human sufferings, it now also emphasises “peace creation.” It is significant to note that they appointed me – a Japanese – as director emeritus at its Research Institute for international peace.

We will continue our endeavors toward true reconciliation. Someday I hope we can exchange exhibits with the Nanjing Massacre Museum and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Q: What are the next challenges for you? A: I would like to see our museum expand into a new peace museum complex, comprising three new museums. One will be a Science and Technology Museum for Peace at our university’s Lake Biwa Campus; the second, an International Understanding Museum for Peace at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University in Oita Prefecture down south; and thirdly, a Digital Resource Museum for Peace Education at the university-affiliated primary, junior and senior high schools.

Internationally, I expect the INMP to develop further all the way to the 2012 conference in The Hague. It will be an epoch-making event paving the way for our people to play active roles in the decade that will follow.

Excerpt:

The global community may have been dismayed by the outcome of the recently concluded climate change talks in Copenhagen, but Mami Naito, 42, is not about to put off dealing with this global phenomenon in her own small way. “We very much like the idea of joining the efforts to prevent global warming,” says the mother of two.

Soon she hopes to have a solar energy-producing device installed on the roof of her house, having obtained estimates from a home appliance chain store in her residential area in Kawasaki, located south of the capital, along with her husband.

Naito and her husband are not alone in finding ways to cut their carbon emissions. According to the store’s manager, only well-to-do senior consumers were interested in such items in the past. But now, he says, people in their 30s and 40s are showing interest in such energy-saving equipment. “It is the same trend you find among younger people who are interested in driving hybrid cars if they become more affordable,” he observes.

Today, observers say, Japanese homeowners are fitting their homes with solar power systems at a dramatic pace. According to the Japan Photovoltaic Expansion Center, the solar energy battery shipments for regular homes between April and September this year more than doubled, with a combined generating capacity of 205,833 kilowatts, from the same period last year.

The Japan Federation of Housing Organisations has observed a similar trend during the same period – new home buyers installing solar panels on their roofs at a rate double or triple the corresponding figure in years past. Sekisui Chemical Co. Ltd., a major home supplier in the East Asian island nation, says more than 75 percent of new home purchases came with orders for solar panel roofs during the same months.

In Nagano Prefecture in central Japan, where the sun shines longer compared to other parts of Japan, people are rushing in for government solar energy subsidies – a recently revived programme – for their solar power purchases. The Global Warming Preventive Activity Center of Nagano Prefecture typically received 100 to 200 such subsidy requests monthly. In recent months, however, this figure has jumped to over 300. By December, the number has almost doubled to 500. The sheer volume of requests has prompted the centre to increase its staff. Still, “(we) can hardly handle them all,” says Takashi Sasaoka, an official in charge of processing subsidy requests.

In one city in Nagano, a non-profit organisation (NGO) called Minami-Shinshu Ohisama Shinpo has been credited with the rapid expansion of solar energy. Ohisama (‘Sunshine’) Shinpo Energy Co., the business arm of the NGO located in Iida City – known to have one of the longest hours of sunshine throughout Japan – has been raising funds since 2004 to promote solar energy systems in the city.

The firm has installed solar panels in a total of 162 facilities, including day care centres, city halls, hospitals as well as homes and business shops. Their combined capacity translates to a reduction of 711 tons of carbon dioxide emission per year.

“People have been interested in solar energy all along, but now they have stronger economic incentives for installing the equipment,” says Hiroyuki Sunaga, president of Japan Roof Nagano, which markets solar energy systems. He has seen orders of solar panel roofs almost tripling in just half a year since April, compared with the same period last year. “The market is booming with exploding demands this year,” he says.

This year, in fact, the government has enforced new policies that further drive consumers to shift to solar energy. In January, it resumed its subsidy programme for consumers purchasing solar panel roofs – a policy that had vigorously promoted the use of this alternative energy source until it was discontinued in 2005, when approximately 73,000 households installed solar panels on their roofs. Japan thus became the leading country across the world in the utilisation and expansion of solar energy systems.

The Democratic Party of Japan is seen as an aggressive advocate of renewable energy. Soon after assuming office in October, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his administration’s commitment to cut the country’s carbon emission by 25 percent from the 1990 levels by 2020. He also said solar energy would be a prime alternative energy source.

During the years since 2006 the solar energy drive slowed down and the solar panel market shrank. Japan – considered the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which drive climate change – was consequently displaced by Germany in terms of solar power utilisation. But as the debate over global warming intensified, government’s interest in alternative energy was renewed and the subsidy programme was revived early this year.

Under the new subsidy policy that came into effect in January 2009, the national government grants 70,000 yen (795 U.S. dollars) for every kilowatt to homeowners utilising a solar energy system capable of generating less than 10 kilowatts. More than 400 local prefectural governments, cities and towns also have their own subsidy programmes.

A new solar energy system buyer in Adachi-Ward of Tokyo can receive not only the government subsidy but also another 100,000 yen (1,162 dollars) per kilowatt capacity from the Tokyo Metropolitan government and, additionally, the same amount from the ward. Adachi-Ward, one of the 23 wards of Tokyo, matches the Tokyo Metropolitan government subsidy.

Tokyo aims to have 40,000 more homes get equipped with solar panels until March 2011.

Installing a typical 3.5-kilowatt solar energy system in a new house costs 1.5 million yen (17,440 dollars) to two million yen (23,255 dollars). This energy source should become more affordable to the average Japanese households, since the government unveiled a plan last year to have the solar energy system prices cut into half in three to five years, among others by promoting research and development of new materials and technology.

Not surprisingly, some families are already counting on a drastic cut in their monthly electricity bills, having learned that a household’s typical monthly bill of, say, 15,920 yen (185 dollars) decreases to 11,660 yen (135 dollars) if the house is powered by solar energy during, especially during daytime.

Another government policy that has added impetus to the solar energy boom in Japan is the requirement for electric power companies to buy surplus power produced by solar energy systems installed in homes. They purchase such power at 48 yen (56 U.S. cents) per kilowatt, double the price applied previously by the buying electric power companies. This policy, which was implemented in November, is in effect for the next 10 years.

With the subsidies provided, reduced power bills and higher prices for surplus power, consumers can expect to earn back the initial costs of fitting their homes with solar energy systems in 10 to 15 years, according to the Natural Resources and Energy Agency.

Naito, the Tokyo housewife, believes many of her friends will similarly reduce their carbon footprints. “It is not only an economic issue,” she says, adding that she has heard of families who, by using solar energy, have become more conscious of the need to go green and preserve energy, thus helping mitigate global warming.

“That is what I would like to see in my own family,” she says.

*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS – Inter Press Service and IFEJ – International Federation of Environmental Journalists, for the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).

By Mutsuko Murakami
TOKYO, Dec 7 2009 (IPS)

As the Climate Change Conference opens today in Copenhagen, excitement— even anxiety—is steadily building over the potential outcome of one of the most awaited events of the year.

Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute Credit: Mutsuko Murakami/IPS

No less concerned about the issue of climate change and the results of the Copenhagen talks is Asia, whose cities are among the world’s most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. Government officials, environmentalists, scholars, and other sectors of society have been engaged in vigorous discussions on how to deal with this environmental bane.

The Tokyo-based Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI)—a development think tank under the multilateral finance institution headquartered in Manila —is one of the organisations that have been on the forefront of such discussions.

In an interview with IPS, ADBI Dean Masahiro Kawai mulls over the issues involved in the regional efforts toward mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Kawai obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University and has been a professor of economics at the prestigious University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science. He served as chief economist for the World Bank’s East Asia and the Pacific Region and was deputy vice-minister of Finance for International Affairs of Japan’s Ministry of Finance.

IPS: Should Asia aim for an ambitious regional carbon emission target, assuming this is even possible? MASAHIRO KAWAI: Asia can set its own carbon emissions target. The large carbon-emitting countries in the region are China (6.0 billion metric tons), India (1.3), and Japan (1.2), while other developing Asian countries account for 1.7 billion metric tons. Moreover, the combined population of China and India is about 2.4 billion while other parts of developing Asia have 984 million.

In terms of GDP, the three giant countries—China, India and Japan—are much larger than other emerging and developing economies. Hence, excluding any of them from a regional framework does not make much sense.

So, if a regional or sub-regional target is to be set, a regional target for Asia is much preferred to a sub-regional target such as one involving the Mekong region, which does not include Indonesia, a major carbon-emitting country in the region.

IPS: What is a realistic carbon target in Asia? MK: Given that Asia has both developed and developing countries, setting a total emissions target for Asia as a whole is not realistic. First, in developing countries, where per capita emissions are low and many poor people live without access to electricity, their per capita emissions, and hence total emissions could be allowed to rise to some reasonable levels.

Second, in developed countries where per capita emissions are already high, both per capita and total emissions should decline over time. Essentially, the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities” should be used as criteria for reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.

Stabilising global emissions to the (target of) 450-550 ppm [parts per million] level would require a 50 percent reduction by 2050 relative to 1990 levels from around 40Gt [gigatonnes] Co2-equivalent to 20Gt CO2- equivalent. This would also require further cuts after 2050 to bring down (carbon emissions) to below 10Gt CO2-equivalent. This means that all countries will have to transform their economies to a per capita level of two tonnes CO2-equivalent.

IPS: What are the levels of emissions across Asia? MK: Asia has varying levels of emissions. Some countries (Vietnam, Nepal and Burma) have levels less than one tonne per person; another group (China, Malaysia, etc.) has two to six tonnes per person; and the high-income group (Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc.) has five tonnes per person. India’s per capita emission is 1.2T, and it is close to the first group of countries.

Making the per capita emission in the range of two to five tonnes could be a realistic approach for Asia over the next few decades. This would allow substantial increases in total emissions for the first group of countries and India. The high income group should make very aggressive reduction efforts.

IPS: Are these targets enough? MK: Developed countries should set high targets for total emission reduction. Japan’s announcement that it will reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent between 1990 and 2020 is a good example.

What developing countries can do is to set targets for carbon intensity reduction—that is, carbon emissions per GDP—such as the one set by China (reduction of carbon intensity by 40-45 percent between 2005 and 2020) and the one considered by India (reduction of carbon intensity by 24 percent during the same period).

In addition, they should make a commitment that once their level of per capita income has reached today’s developed-country levels, they will start reducing total carbon emissions. These moves are quite encouraging though one could always take the view that they are not enough. But I believe this is a good starting point.

IPS: What do you think are the major impediments to achieving an ideal carbon reduction target? MK: There are massive differences in perspectives as well as thoughts. The first type of impediments could be mindset. There is the general belief that there is no “no regret strategy” where economic development comes first and people worry about the environment and climate change later; mission cuts are costly as they deter economic growth and development; adaptation is a more pressing issue than mitigation; and unrealistic optimism, such as that developed countries will find solution and technology and finance, will come along just in time.

Another type of impediments could be at the policy level such as lack of targets (national or sectoral); presence of perverse subsidies for fossil fuel use and raw material use and absence of rational pricing for carbon; lack of institutional mechanisms that measure, verify and report any mitigation action; limited incentives for use of energy efficient technologies such as smart transport systems; and lack of efficiency standards for electric appliances and ICT [information and communications technology] devices as well as buildings.

Finally, there are operational impediments, namely, risk aversion, which is characteristic of private-sector firms; the missing capacity of small- and medium-sized enterprises; limited access to low carbon technologies; and lack of availability of finance for energy efficiency improvements.

IPS: What should the region be doing to address the issue of carbon emission cuts? MK: Developed countries like Japan, Korea and Singapore will have to initiate a cap-and-trade system (an environmental policy that imposes mandatory caps on emissions while allowing flexibility on how sources comply) and then invite developing economies that are ready to adopt such a system to join.

Developing Asia is yet to prepare for that level. Urging them to adopt a cap- and-trade system in a premature way might lead to unduly different responses.

Other market-based mechanisms like carbon tax and one-side trading (e.g., Clean Development Mechanism, where developed countries that provide financing and/or technologies for GHG-reducing projects in developing countries can get a credit for reducing their GHG emissions) as well as regulations and standards could be simultaneously pursued to complement the cap and trade system.

IPS: What else should the Asian region do collectively? MK: The regional efforts could include collaborative action to establish a carbon price at the regional level, scale up near commercial low carbon technologies or develop breakthrough mitigation technologies.

The region could also introduce regional energy efficiency standards and top runner programmes to phase out energy-inefficient products; create a regional climate change fund to reinvigorate investments in mitigation; and focus on deforestation in certain countries as it is related to local livelihoods, by requesting international action to integrate fully deforestation avoidance into global carbon trading.

IPS: How is ADBI dealing with these issues based on its mandate? MK: ADBI is part of the ADB family. ADB is working strategically to help developing member countries advance energy efficiency and low carbon energy sources, among others.

ADBI supports ADB’s activities through research on strategies on energy and resource efficiency as well as capacity-building activities on policies and practices on low-carbon green growth as needed by developing member countries.

IPS: What role should Japan play given the goals of the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change? MK: Leveraging the G20 structure, Japan can work with other developed countries to promote an institutional framework where a global deal is shaped for technology transfers and financial flows from developed to developing countries.

Japan can also convince the U.S. to make a more aggressive commitment of carbon emission reduction, as the current U.S. proposal is tantamount to only a three to four percent reduction of carbon emissions in 2020 relative to 1990.

Excerpt:

Amid worsening poverty, income inequality and a host of environmental hazards that are afflicting many countries, what does the world need today?

An economic model that encourages local initiatives for social entrepreneurship, builds smaller-scale and independent economy, and expands social networks and promotes grassroots-based initiatives towards sustainable development, say advocates of this economic model, which gathered together for the second time in a span of two years in this capital.

These ideas, they say, are best summed up in the concept of solidarity economy (SE).

Yoko Kitazawa, an independent scholar and one of the chief organisers of a forum held early this month in the Japanese capital, said the idea places priority on the welfare of people, not on profit of corporations or organizational prosperity.

She added that SE is now a reality for a growing number of people—the answer to the market-driven, profit-greedy economy that has been largely blamed for the massive financial crisis that hit the world last year and which placed the most disadvantaged sectors of society to increased suffering.

The term was first coined at the World Social Forum, originally a Brazil-based civil society’s answer to the World Economic Forum held also annually in Davos, Switzerland. The call of SE for a more democratic and equitable world has rapidly spread since the early part of 2000 in Latin America and European Union as well as in Asia.

Local or grassroots development, social cohesion and equity, responsible stewardship of natural resources, sustainable growth were just some of the major themes that resonated with hundreds of Asia’s civil society activists, who called for a more socially responsible and compassionate economy during the Second Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy, held from Nov. 7 to 10 in this capital and attended by some 500 participants from different countries. It was one of the largest international gatherings advocating an alternative, or solidarity, economy.

The forum was attended not only by scholars or researchers but also by numerous grassroots practitioners and representatives from fair trade, social business or non-profit organisations from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, India, the Philippines and Japan. South Korea joined for the first time alongside participants from leading SE organisations in France, Canada, Luxemburg and Australia.

In Japan, local initiatives founded on the principles of solidarity economy appear to be growing in number, noted some of the foreign participants at the forum. An example of this is an income-generating activity initiated by a group of elderly womenfolk in a Kamikatsu town in southern Tokushima Prefecture, using red and green ‘nandina’ leaves and bright red berries, which they fashion into decorative items used in fancy restaurants in major cities. By 2005, their project, which has provided employment to some 200 villagers, mostly women, had generated a total of 220 million yen (2.47 million U.S. dollars)—the latest available data—in sales.

Still another community-based initiative in Japan that proved to be an inspiration and even an eye opener to the participants was an organic farming scheme of Yoshinori Kaneko, whose advocacy as well as leadership has helped create local industries using products from his farm produce— certainly a big boost to the communities involved.

“The case of Mr. Kaneko deepened the participants’ understanding of SE and the fact that any individual initiative can be an entry point for building SE at the local level,” said Benjamin Quinones Jr., chairman of the Asian Coalition for Socially Responsible Small Medium Enterprises (CSR-SME), which organised the first Asian forum on SE in the Philippines in 2007.

Kawaguchi said civil society should actively engage with existing mainstream economic sectors to create a greater social wave. “That way, the mainstream sectors can help CSOs (civil society organisations) create business while the latter can offer its knowledge and networks,” she said at the panel discussion on “Alternative Development Approaches and Solidarity Economy.”

“It is very encouraging to meet people from other countries aspiring to make a difference and sharing the same goals across borders,” said Setsuko Arima, who described herself as a housewife from rural Nagano Prefecture and attended the forum in her individual capacity.

Inspired by what she learned during the event, including the examples set by the Kamikatsu women and Kaneko as well as other activities outside Japan, she said she hoped to set up a non-profit organisation that would recycle used consumer items. “We would like to go hand in hand with our counterparts outside Japan and form a community of a new kind.”

“The experience at Tokyo was very enriching,” said Professor Denison Jayasooria of the Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia. “The forum provided tremendous opportunities for sharing, fellowship and networking among a diverse group of people, among whom were academics, grassroots leaders, civil society activists development workers policy makers, organizational leads and international representatives.”

“We learned a lot at this forum,” said Ila Shah, manager of the Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, a 37-year-old pioneering microfinance organisation that counts one million beneficiaries. In her speech during the plenary session on “Solidarity Economy from the Asian Perspective,” she said her organisation had gone beyond financing to include social security and health care, among others.

At the first Asian forum for SE in 2007, socially responsible investment, enterprise and fair trade micro financing were among the main themes for discussion. This year the themes were expanded to include more relevant topics.

“The thematic discussion at (this year’s Asian forum) had a much broader coverage with the inclusion of new topics such as solidarity tax levy and social welfare for the elderly, handicapped and unemployed,” said CSR-SME’s Quinones.

And as though in keeping with the call of the times for more prudent and socially responsible economic policies, discussions on solidarity tax levy were in the context of regulation of finance and re-distribution of wealth. Takehiko Uemura, an associate professor at Yokohama City University as well as an expert and advocate of such a scheme, said it could be “a more feasible and effective instrument for promoting SE.”

The concept of solidarity levy was based on the original proposal of American economist James Tobin on currency transaction tax, which later prompted the United Nations Development Programme to propose the use of revenue from such a tax for the eradication of poverty in developing countries.

“I found it fascinating that (the idea of solidarity tax) is steadily gaining ground,” said Mariko Kawaguchi, an expert on socially responsible investment at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo, a leading think tank in Japan.

In their statement of commitment defined conclusively during the Forum, the organisers pledged to establish the Asian alliance for solidarity economy, which will become the regional hub for policy advocacy, theoretical and organization development work and solidarity economic initiatives.

The alliance is expected to pave the way for a “more organised process of coordinating the promotion of SE in various Asian countries,” said. Quinones.

At the next biennial forum, to be held in Malaysia in 2011, more participants are expected to come, including those from China.

By Mutsuko Murakami
TOKYO, Nov 22 2009 (IPS)

The outbreak of the global financial crisis that followed the collapse of the U.S.’s major financial institutions last year sent many economies into a downward spiral. Many were also forced to rethink their economic development models.

For Dr Jun Nishikawa, professor emeritus at Waseda University in Tokyo, there is no more viable option than a solidarity-based economy, or one that promotes human and social development. This, in his view, contrasts with a profit- and greed-driven economy to which grassroots development is often hostage.

Dr Nishikawa is Japan’s leading theorist of the social development and solidarity economy (SE), an alternative framework for the development of grassroots people, which he thinks is not possible in a globalised market economy. He says it is a concept that seeks to transform a capitalist economy that advocates of solidarity economy like him believe engenders oppressive social conditions.

The concept of SE evolved during the first World Social Forum of civil society organizations in 2001. The forum sought to counter the ill effects of economic globalization and denounced the anti-human aspects of a market- oriented economy, where everything is “merchandised and transaction- based” and the environment is rapidly deteriorating, he says.

His dream is to see a society marked by a sustainable environment that can realise genuine human growth through the combined efforts of civil society and the public sector. This aspiration of his reverberated anew in the Asian Forum for Solidarity Economy, held in Tokyo last week.

In Japan the prospects for propagating SE appear promising against a backdrop of social and gender gaps, job insecurity and poverty, which have assumed disturbing proportions. In fact, Dr Nishikawa proudly says, a number of activities promoting solidarity economy are taking place in his country. These include social enterprises, social financing schemes, fair trade and non-profit undertakings in the fields of welfare, medical and care work and agriculture—all of which are intended to promote grassroots development.

He ponders the prospects for the pursuit of solidarity economy in Japan and elsewhere in the world.

IPS: What does SE mean in this time of economic crisis? JUN NISHIKAWA: The economic globalisation has in recent decades brought about increasing poverty, unemployment and social division on a global scale, and this was heavily criticised by civil society groups.

On the other hand, it has promoted money-oriented, or greed, economy among transnational corporations and financial institutions. Their collective failures led to a global financial crisis in 2007-08.

In this situation, the governments tend to promote various regional cooperation schemes such as free trade and economic partnership agreements. However, there are fears that such schemes will only lead to a failed regional globalisation.

IPS: What is the role of the SE forum in this regard? JN: The forum advocates a more humanistic economy and society both at the regional and global levels. This is particularly vital in Asia, where rapid economic growth has created enormous poverty, social division and environmental deterioration. IPS: What did the Asian Forum in Tokyo achieve that in your view can help address these issues? JN: On one hand, the Forum in Tokyo is a good departure point to develop further SE activities in Japan as well as in Asia. On the other, it is a good beginning to exchange experiences, mutual support and partnerships among SE advocates in the five continents of the world.

In fact, we were amazed to see so many delegates, not only from Asia but also from Europe, North America, Oceania and other parts of the world. It means that the role of the SE movement in Asia is considered important not only among Asian nations but also in other parts of the world.

IPS: How would you describe Japan in the post-World War II era and what does its current mean for promoting SE in the world’s second largest economy? JN: The post-World War II economy in Japan is marked by “development- oriented dictatorship,” which was led by a coalition of politicians, business groups and bureaucrats. The non-profit sector that existed in the form of cooperatives, however, largely survived within the said development-oriented regime. The force of civil society organisations has long been weak.

But the situation started to rapidly change after the collapse of the bubble economy, which took place through the 1990s. As a result, the development- oriented dictatorship ceased to function properly. It was prompted by the rise of civil society and people’s movements in this decade, which are seeking more public sector accountability and democratisation.

After 1993, the domination of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which symbolised the development-oriented dictatorship, ended and the Japanese politics entered a new era of coalition government made up of a plurality of parties. This change was accelerated by a change in the international environment, where the East-West Cold war ended and where the world has become more multilateral.

After the Asian currency and financial crisis between 1997 and 1998, and during the incumbency of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who promoted globalisation and liberalisation in Japan, the ill effects of globalisation became visible in this country, where 90 percent of the population thought they belonged to the middle class.

These international and domestic changes have pushed democratisation in Japan—a boost to CSO activities.

All this bodes well for pushing a solidarity-based economy.

IPS: Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to support civil society, non-profit and citizens’ actions. How do you view his leadership and what does it imply for the pursuit of SE in Japan? JN: The election of Prime Minister Hatoyama brought an end to the old-style development-oriented political regime. He equates politics with ‘yuai’ (fraternity). This means giving a voice to marginalised sectors, including minority groups, and pursuing an economic programme that is fundamentally based on human development.

The ‘yuai’ is in stark contrast to the rapid marketisation pursued by past governments that created a lot of unemployment and poverty. In today’s Japan, the Democratic Party is committed to addressing these issues more than pursuing a growth-based economy as advocated by LDP.

All this means that the new government is keen to address social issues and involve the CSOs in resolving them.

IPS: Are you optimistic about the potential of SE to gain more adherents in Japan and consequently take root in the country? JN: In a situation where major enterprises are moving their factories abroad and the government is running a heavy deficit every year, and poverty and job loss are on the rise, the people have no other choice but to depend on grassroots-led development or entrepreneurship.

In Japan, public-private sector collaboration has traditionally involved government and big private enterprises. Today we need to promote collaboration between the government and civil society to resolve the failures that have accumulated through the years under the traditional setup.

IPS: What is the role of Japan in promoting SE across Asia and the rest of the globe? JN: Many Asian countries have followed the Japanese way of growth based on export-oriented industrialisation. Japan should lead the way in reversing this cycle, among others through a change of lifestyle—one that emphasizes responsible citizenship, positive social ties and sustainable environment.

These are not alien to Japanese and Asian cultures on the whole. SE is showing both Japan and other Asian countries that an alternative way of living is not only possible but also inevitable.

IPS: How do you expect the Japanese people act to respond to the SE challenge? JN: Many Japanese have become conscious of the necessity to reverse today’s trends. This is evident in their overwhelming support for a new government during the election, inspired by the chain of events leading to President Barack Obama’s victory. A positive social development combined with environment conservation efforts will strengthen the people’s resolve toward an alternative lifestyle that is consistent with the ethos of solidarity economy.

Excerpt:

By Mutsuko Murakami
TOKYO, Nov 11 2009 (IPS)

An increasing number of universities and colleges across Asia today are running a programme called “service-learning,” a teaching and learning strategy that has become synonymous with precisely what its name stands for.

Service-learning advocate Dr Carol Ma Hok Ka Credit: Mutsuko Murakami/IPS

Based on this concept students go on voluntary community service so they can contribute to meeting the needs of communities while enriching their learning experience. This allows them to practice what is otherwise a mere theory or concept in a book.

Service-learning is an experiential learning method that links academic knowledge to voluntary services and vice-versa. It first gained ground in the United States in the early 1900s.

Not to be left behind, Asian education policymakers have jumped onto the programme, believing that nothing less than a hands-on experience for students will extend traditional learning beyond the confines of their classrooms and fast-track their growth as individuals and thus emerge as responsible citizens and leaders.

Dr Carol Ma Hok Ka is Assistant Director at the Office of Service-Learning at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, one of a fast-growing number of active service-learning institutions in Asia.

Lingnan University was the first to set up an Office of Service-Learning in Hong Kong three years ago. The Office is devoted to fostering student- oriented learning and whole person development hand in hand with academic scholars and community leaders by affording them opportunities to serve the needy.

By engaging in S-L programmes Lingnan University has taken the lead to link up different universities in Hong Kong and set up a higher education SL network. It also endeavors to expand the network in Asia-Pacific Region, notably China, Taiwan and Japan with a view to building a harmonious region.

Recently in Japan to expand its SL network, Dr Ma spoke with IPS to share her thoughts about service-learning.

IPS: Why makes Service-Learning (S-L) a novel concept? CAROL MA HOK KA: S-L is a means to fill the needs of communities through a teaching and learning process. Students can learn out of the classroom and integrate what they have learnt into reality. It is practical and also it trains our students to be responsible, caring and loving in this changing society.

IPS: Since a great deal of learning under the S-L concept will necessarily take place outside the classrooms, where do teachers fit in the whole scheme of things? CMHK: Teachers can use S-L as a teaching method to provide a community involvement platform for students to gain a deeper understanding of the subject-related courses, civic life and participation through structured reflection.

Through working with different stakeholders, agency supervisors, service targets, teachers, students, we can help create a harmonious society and nurture a giving culture.

IPS: Lingnan University is rapidly expanding the S-L programme, which explains your visit to Japan. Why the sense of urgency? CMHK: Lingnan has a strong commitment to doing service. Thus doing S-L echoes our education motto, “Education for Service”. We are also interested in enhancing the internationalisation of the concept of S-L and network building with other universities (offering this programme).

IPS: Do you find many other Asian institutions practicing S-L? CMHK: Yes, I do. Education nowadays is training students not only for their professional jobs; it is also about training our future leaders’ hearts and minds.

As our former [University] president Edward Chen K. Y. said, the world today is characterised by digitisation, globalisation and capitalism in this new/creative economy. As such we need to readdress the importance of adaptability, creativity and life-long education, and re-emphasise the importance of ethics, civility and social responsibility among today’s youth.

IPS: What kind of impact does S-L make on students, institutions such as universities and communities? CMHK: It does enhance the students’ holistic development, encompassing their academic and personal lives, job aspirations, ability to love and care for others and demonstrate social responsibility.

For institutions, S-L helps to strengthen our mission and vision on education as it provides opportunities that foster a giving culture in a community setting.

IPS: Why do you think civic engagement is especially necessary in Asia? CMHK: Taking advantage of similar cultural backgrounds and geographical closeness, universities in Asia could work together to tackle together issues that commonly confront the region such as AIDS, for example.

IPS: What kinds of trends that are relevant to S-L are you seeing in the region that you may not be seeing elsewhere in the world? CMHK: I think S-L made rapid progress in Asia after the two conferences organised by Lingnan University in 2007 and 2009. I feel the collective passion and commitment of the universities in the region offering S-L programmes, and I hope that this will continue.

Also, universities and various associations and groups—such as the Association of Christian Universities and colleges in Asia—have also hosted different regional seminars and meetings to promote S-L.

I am confident that with the support of different regional associations, service-learning will flourish or become the innovative response to the future needs of higher education.

IPS: What do you predict Asia’s higher education will be like, say, 10 years from now and how is that significant to the S-L practices? CMHK: I think the S-L climate could be cultivated in 10 years. By then there will be more joint S-L programmes, student exchange activities and SL conferences. I look forward to working with other countries in building a harmonious society using the SL concept.

Excerpt:

“I hope to see a society where women can comfortably work and raise a family … at the same time.”

University student Eri Ochiai’s words may well echo the sentiment of many a Japanese woman, hopeful for a change that has eluded them for many years under the previous administration.

When Ochiai, 20, trooped to the polls for the first time in late August, she was resolute to give her vote to her district’s female candidate, who had pledged “to improve the social environments for women.”

Ochiai’s optimism resonates with many women in Japan.

“The Japanese voters have greater expectations of women than before,” said Yoriko Madoka, a member of the House of Councilors (the upper house of Japan’s National Diet) since l992. The women in parliament will bring changes to Japanese politics, added the acknowledged gender advocate within the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

DPJ became the new ruling party in the East Asian economic powerhouse following its overwhelming victory in the last national elections.

About a third of the women elected for the first time to the lower house — many of them from the DPJ — are in their 20s to 30s while another third are in their 40s. Several young female candidates of the DPJ beat the veteran conservatives from the once formidable party.

Inexperienced in politics, their presence in the legislature has prompted some of the LDP stalwarts to voice their scepticism: “What can these young girls do in politics?” they asked.

“What is wrong with women and young people making decisions in politics?” Madoka said.

Newly elected parliament member Mari Kushibuchi, 41, expressed to ‘Asahi Shimbun’, Japanese daily, soon after the election her readiness to “transform the significance of the votes given to her into new power.”

Exposed to the realities of Japanese society, the new and younger female members of parliament are more aware of gender issues and of the need to get rid of discrimination against women, said Madoka. “They are ready to provide different perspectives on agendas involving not only gender but other issues as well such as peace, economy and education,” she added.

Such perspectives will be put to good use in a nation still struggling to make women’s voice sufficiently heard on a host of issues.

In terms of female presence in politics, Japan ranks 99th in the world, up from its previous standing of 134th, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation of Parliaments.

This shows that women’s involvement in politics is increasing. The current female composition of the lower house, numbering 54 , or 11.3 percent of the total — up from 9.2 before the last election — is still far below the 30 percent government had set in 2005 as the target ratio of women in important positions by 2020.

Yet the number of women parliamentarians who now sit in the House of Representatives is already unprecedented in the history of Japanese politics, thanks in part to women’s groups that campaigned hard to send more women to parliament.

One of these is the ‘Women in New World, International Network’, founded in 1999 by Ryoko Akamatsu, former Education Minister and erstwhile chief of the Women and Minors Bureau at the Labor Ministry, along with her friends.

WinWin, as the network is simply known, supports progressive female candidates running for public office. The group believes that Japan’s society will change for the better if it has more women in parliament.

Madoka’s School of Politics for Women, launched with other parliamentarians in l993, has trained more than 600 women interested in political careers. Of these, five have been sent to the parliament and at least 70 others to the local assembly.

Complementing these groups’ efforts are those of other women outside the public sphere who have been pushing for more gender equality in their country.

The Working Women’s Network (WWN), a civic organisation of female workers in Osaka, made an urgent appeal to the new government in early September for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The Optional Protocol is an international treaty adopted in 1999 establishing complaint and inquiry mechanisms for the CEDAW. Japan ratified the CEDAW in l985, but not the Optional Protocol. Japanese gender specialists agree that there is an urgent need to ratify the other treaty, believing it will effectively eliminate discrimination against women in Japan.

More than 80 women’s groups across the nation endorsed the WWN’s proposal urging the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to publicly pledge the ratification of the Optional Protocol during his speech at the United Nations summit on Sept. 23. But he made no mention of it, focusing instead on diplomacy and Japan’s initiative about climate change.

Hatoyama’s party, nonetheless, has already made known its intention to amend the antiquated provisions of the Civil Code, which, among others, will allow women to keep their maiden names even after marriage. Such efforts were unheard of under the conservative LDP.

Notwithstanding all these efforts in and outside the government, Japan, it appears, still has a long way to go in bringing women’s equality in society into reality.

In the Gender Empowerment Measure ranking compiled in the 2007-2008 Human Development Index Report by the United Nations Development Programme, Japan placed 54th among 177 nations, lagging far behind other industrialised nations.

Having ratified the CEDAW in 1985, Japan is subject to monitoring by the U.N. Committee monitoring the Convention’s implementation. In August, the Committee evaluated the status of women in Japan, one of 11 countries up for review this year, and found that the country had not shown improvement based on the previous monitoring reports.

In its April 2008 report to CEDAW, Japan claimed to have already implemented the equal-pay-for-equal-work rule based on Article 4 of the Labor Standard Law, which prohibits sexually discriminatory wages. Yet it admitted that there was still a wage gap between men and women workers in Japan.

The challenge for the progressive women’s force in the parliament is to build a base for untying the gender bind in Japan, said Madoka. Such bind manifests in a number of ways.

“More women belong to the ‘working poor’ class” compared to men, she said. “They have also less access to fulltime jobs, less pay and fewer benefits.”

A 2008 report published by ‘Japan Times’, an English daily, quoted the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry as saying that fulltime female workers in 2007 earned on average 66.9 percent of what men earned.

The gnawing disparities between genders should be narrowed, said Madoka. “If women’s life is improved, then men’s life should be better, and the whole society will be more human-friendly,” she reasoned.

“At the moment working mothers are burdened with unchanging multiple tasks both at work and at home, said Akamatsu. “That is why over 60 percent of working women quit jobs at their first child birth,” she added, referring to the M-curve — or the workforce participation rate of women by age — that reflects a dip considered distinct to Japan.

First-time voter Ochiai may not know how long she will have to wait to see her dream for women in her society come true. But she remains optimistic, especially now that there are more female parliamentarians in her country.

Sixty two-year-old Yasuko Aoki cannot wait for that day to come. “We expect that the women in parliament would carve a better future for our 13-month-old granddaughter, Hiroko,” the wife of a retired engineer in Tokyo told IPS.

She may have known only the traditional life of a homemaker, but she nevertheless shares the hopes and dreams of many other Japanese women. Already she is seeing a modicum of change within the confines of her own family.

While Aoki’s daughter is busy tending to Hiroko after a hard day’s work as a bank employee, her son-in-law is dutifully taking the garbage out. An auspicious portent of things to come, she muses.

By Mutsuko Murakami
TOKYO, Sep 5 2009 (IPS)

Many of the old guards of Japan’s longtime ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were banished from the political landscape in the aftermath of the Aug. 30 general election in Japan. Ending the LDP’s long-running grip on power is opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which won a historic landslide victory.

Taro Kono is one of the LDP members that were sent back by voters to the House of Representatives.

Now on his fifth term as representative of one district of Kanagawa Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, the 46-year-old highly regarded parliament member proved that despite the major setback suffered by his party, he continued to enjoy the overwhelming support of voters.

A graduate of Georgetown University in Washington D.C., Kono made his first political bid in 1996 and readily won a seat in the House of Representatives. He stood out as an outspoken critic of recent LDP regimes. He has represented the liberal camp of the LDP, just like his father, Yohei Kono, a 14-term member of the Japanese parliament who had served as Lower House Speaker until his retirement this year.

Kono advocated better social safety nets and the need to cut wasteful government spending while criticizing the apparent lack of a collective sense of crisis among his party’s top leaders. His positions on various issues were akin to those proposed by the DPJ.

He shares with IPS his candid thoughts on his party’s dismal performance and what he expects of the new regime under the DPJ banner. Here are excerpts from the interview.

IPS: How would you explain the dramatic defeat of your party in the last election?

Taro Kono: It was the result of the poor performance of the government (of three consecutive Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso) in the past four years. (Our) cabinet ministers — many of whom proved so incompetent — did not do their jobs well while the economy deteriorated, unemployment increased, GDP declined and suicide rates rose.

Under their reigns, Japan’s financial markets also tumbled, made worse by the Lehman Shock (the collapse of the U.S. investment bank last year that became the trigger for the ensuing financial crisis that was felt across the globe, including Japan).

If only these cabinet members had competently performed their tasks, they would not have approved the (11.7 billion yen or about 126.12 million U.S. dollars) budget for building a huge pop culture center (the National Center for Media Arts), criticised as a “state-run ‘manga kissa’ (short for ‘manga kissaten’ or Japanese-style comic café),” and Japan would not have been in such a bad shape.

IPS: Do you believe that the LDP rule was doing well until the last three administrations? Some say that public frustration had been building up for years over the LDP’s leadership.

TK: Remember, the LDP won massively in the election four years ago. I still endorse the reform initiatives of former Prime Minister Juichiro Koizumi. But once his successor (Shinzo) Abe called all the anti-reform members (who had opposed Koizumi’s policy on the postal service privatization) back to the party and appointed them to important (government) posts, (he) started taking a wrong course.

IPS: Former Prime Minister Taro Aso has pledged to resign as LDP president. On Sept. 16, the Japanese Diet (parliament) will convene a special session to appoint a new prime minister. Not a few LDP members feel it does not make sense to endorse him.

TK: You do not give your vote to the person who is responsible for the defeat and who is set to resign as a result.

IPS: What is the biggest challenge for your party now that it will assume the role of an opposition?

TK: This issue is not just about the LDP. We need to have ‘small government’ (that in his view runs counter to the DPJ’s plans to give cash handouts to people) that can lead the country back to economic growth.

If the LDP should continue existing, it needs to redefine its identity and tell the world what kind of party it aims to be, what kind of government it aims to make. Unless the party builds a consensus for making small government, there is no hope.

IPS: What do you think of DPJ’s policies, as disclosed in their manifesto?

TK: I agree with some of their specific policies such as their pension reform plans. But I do not buy their labor union-based idea of ‘big government’ and of ‘redistribution (of welfare) by such a government. I am for small government that would focus on bringing back economic development.

IPS: How do you think the DPJ will perform in its first administration?

TK: It is not going to be easy. They will fail to implement policies they have promised, because these were made without solid financial ground. The DPJ said they could squeeze financial resources by cutting wasteful spending. Sooner or later they will have to give up the promised handouts (to families with children and farmers) such as ‘child allowances’.

IPS: What is the role of younger LDP leaders like you and how do you expect to reinvent the party?

TK: I will act according to my beliefs. If the party will pursue the right course, I will stay on and support it. But I will work faithfully for the Japanese people, not for the party. I have been with the LDP because there was no other choice. But I do not need to stay for the sake of it. I may leave and form a new party, who knows?

IPS: Do you think the existing network of younger MPs from both parties will expand?

TK: Some LDP members have ideas different from those of the party’s mainstream leaders. It’s the same with some DPJ members, who think differently. These people could be a force for further realignments of political parties in the future.

Today, the policies of the LDP and DPJ are not much different, after all. If we can have two independent parties each offering visions and policies distinct from each other’s, our parliament will function as expected.

Excerpt:

The stunning victory of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) against the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Sunday’s election has left Yasuyo Takahashi, a Tokyo suburb resident, more upbeat about the prospects for change in her country.

“We feel we now have a good chance to finally bring about changes in Japanese politics,” said the self-confessed apolitical mother of two primary school-age children whose newfound interest in politics just before the election helped turn the tide in favor of the opposition party.

?he Democratic Party—only 10 years old, a relative novice and untested—is projected to have more than doubled its seats in the House of Representatives to 308, winning a comfortable majority. The LDP seats, on the other hand, have considerably shrunk from 300 to 119.

Even before LDP’s 54-year grip on power came to a crushing end, hopes were already high that change was in the offing. This recurring theme during the campaign resonated so well with voters like Yasuyo, who were desperate for regime change.

“My friends and I suddenly turned into interested voters,” she said. Weeks before the historic election, she and her friends would discuss political issues at dinner table. They weighed candidates’ platforms and what these meant for them and their children—something they never did before, she added.

Yasuyo said that as mothers, they were particularly interested in the new government’s actions on increasing daycare centers and providing allowances for children as well as ensuring cheaper education costs. While groups like Yasuyo and her friends were engaged in vigorous discussions about the elections, others, particularly the youth, took visible initiatives all over Japan. Dozens of non-partisan student groups, for instance, marched on the streets calling on youths to vote. They also carried out campaigns in cyberspace, trying to pull voters out of their political apathy.

According to Kyodo News, a Tokyo-based news agency, turnout among voters aged 20 to 29 in the past elections had ranged only from 30 to 40 percent compared with 66.7 percent in the 1967 election. Those in their 60s, however, had comprised 70 to 80 percent of voters over the past three decades.

To encourage young voters to pledge online that they would vote, Kensuke Harada and his friends founded the ivote website. Along with many other youth groups that were organized before the elections, ivote also rallied young people behind the idea of voting and the promise that it held out. And vote they did, as evidenced by the huge turnout of voters come Election Day, a big chunk of whom comprised young voters.

“They must have felt they could make a difference in the election outcome and in Japanese politics even if they did not really expect its immediate impact on their daily lives,” said the 23-year-old political science student from the University of Tokyo.

“We were impressed by the election results,” said Kensuke.

As early as February, Kensuke and his peers began organising parties for young voters so they could meet and discuss vital issues with politicians of all stripes. The group successfully built a nationwide network with more than a dozen other groups to organise an election eve gathering in each of their target 15 cities, including the capital. On voting day, his group emailed a reminder to about 1,200 registered members to cast their ballots.

Although local media surveys had been predicting a dramatic power shift for the powerful 480-seat House of Representatives in Japan’s parliament, the eventual shakeout turned out to be even more surprising to many. “It is the historic end of LDP rule,” said popular broadcast commentator Soichiro Tahara during the Sunday night election coverage on television. Prime Minister Taro Aso conceded defeat shortly after the polls closed and acknowledged the people’s “disappointment” over his administration, which had been blamed for the economic woes besetting the country on top of other major issues.

Even many veteran LDP leaders and former and incumbent Cabinet ministers, including former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu and current Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, lost out to younger and new Democratic party candidates in their own constituencies.

“It clearly swept many old guards of LDP from Japan’s political scene,” said Takashi Nishio, professor of public administration at Tokyo’s International Christian University (ICU). “Voters sought an alternative system for their own survival,” he told IPS. And this meant booting the “antiquated LDP out of power amid the greatest post-war crisis to have hit Japan.”

The crisis, he said, is not only economic in nature. Japanese are more anxious than ever about their security and well-being, especially with the advent of the swine flu or the A (H1N1) infection. He added that voters realized that the old system, where policies were crafted and carried out by powerful bureaucrats rather than lawmakers, was not going to protect them anymore. The world’s second largest economy posted the biggest contraction since the country’s economic crisis in 1974, at an annual rate of 12.7 percent during the period October-December last year. Despite the 0.9 percent gain on gross domestic product registered between April and June this year, the economic outlook remained gloomy for many people. Student leader Kensuke said his fellow youths’ interest in politics essentially evolved from the deteriorating economy, which made a huge dent in employment prospects.

Nishio said the DPJ’s manifesto listing specific policies gave voters clearer ideas about what they wanted in their new government. The Democrats, for instance, promised not to raise the consumption tax for four years to provide cash handouts for families with children as well as farmers. These will mean a monthly cash stipend of 26,000 yen (about 260 U.S. dollars) for every child under 15.

DPJ also pledged to make highways toll-free and dramatically cut wasteful government spending to facilitate funding for its planned programs.

The record high voter turnover of 69.28 percent, based on local media reports, in the just concluded election clearly reflected the intense public calls for change that contributed significantly to the opposition party’s impressive showing, commentators said.

Just as evident were the significant shifts in support by traditionally LDP-based and powerful sectors of voters, such as farmers, fisherfolk, medical doctors and even the provincial league of postmasters. Fragments of these groups had voiced their frustrations about the LDP in the past few years, so it did not come as a surprise to many when they openly supported the Democratic Party.

“The election outcome was the result of frustrations and complaints about the LDP that had accumulated for so long,” Aso said during a televised press conference when he acknowledged defeat to DPJ.

That Japan’s political establishment had been recently rocked by a pension scandal was one more reason for voter alienation from LDP. So was the high unemployment rate, which hit a record 5.7 percent just a month before the election. Even amid reports that the economy posted growth in the second quarter, thanks to short-term stimulus around the world, many voters were undeterred, unable to feel the impact of their country’s rebound from recession. Even older folk, who had also exhibited disenchantment with the ruling party, were equally adamant about the need for change in Japan’s political life.

“We would like to see more people-friendly leaders rule the country,” said a 94-year-old retired businessman and once an ardent LDP supporter, who asked not to be identified.

Now that the election is over and Yukio Hatoyama, head of the opposition party, is poised to become Japan’s next prime minister, the question foremost on the minds of many is: Will DPJ deliver on its promised change? This remains to be seen.

For now, feelings of euphoria and optimism are palpable in Japan. “Changes are taking place,” said Kensuke.