YouSaid · the spoken record

Shinzo Abe

lines on the record: 122
first: 2013-09-24
most recent: 2019-09-24
sittings or episodes: 7
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In fact, the business forum held at the same time as TICAD was jam-packed with businessmen and women from Africa and Japan and electric with eager enthusiasm. I also left the forum with a sense that new investment proposals and new projects were quickly materializing. Changes in Africa encourage us. The world does indeed change. We are able to change it through the efforts that we make. And that confidence will be reaffirmed right here in this great Hall. With that, I conclude my statement.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The world will become more connected, leading to more people being lifted from poverty. In recent years, I have presided over summits of the Group of Seven and the G-20, and I have led the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) three times, demonstrating repeatedly that multilateral frameworks do indeed play a levelling role. As a result, the terms “quality infrastructure” and “a free and open Indo-Pacific” have entered the lexicon of the international community, of which I would like the Assembly to take note. The seventh TICAD, held earlier this year, was reborn as the New TICAD, because the words used to talk about Africa should from now on, by all means, tell a story of investment and growth.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I consider precious the pronouncement made to me directly by Supreme Leader Khamenei of Iran that he issued as a fatwa three repudiations regarding nuclear weapons, namely, not to possess, produce or use them, and has ensured the thorough implementation of that fatwa. This morning, too, I held a summit meeting with President Rouhani, our ninth in total. My own unchanging role is to call on Iran to take actions as a major Power that are grounded in the wisdom derived from its rich history. Thirdly and finally, Japan will make use of multilateral frameworks and globalism to, inter alia, reduce disparities. On the heels of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Japan-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is now poised to reach agreement, with Japan’s contribution serving as its impetus.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“First, with regard to North Korea, Japan supports the approach President Trump has taken, which has allowed the two leaders to talk candidly with each other and try to work out the issues at hand, while looking ahead to a bright future. Such an approach has changed the dynamics with respect to North Korea. I myself am determined to meet Chairman Kim Jong-un face to face, without any conditions. Japan’s steadfast objective is to normalize relations with North Korea by comprehensively resolving the outstanding issues of concern with the country, including abductions, nuclear and missile issues, and settling the unfortunate past. Secondly, Japan shares the concerns regarding the situation in the Middle East. The attack on Saudi Arabia’s crude-oil facilities was a contemptible crime that holds the international economic order hostage.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“I must say, however, that these endeavours have largely been inspired by the efforts undertaken by individuals in the private sector. This is my seventh consecutive year to deliver a statement in the general debate at the General Assembly. Over these years, I have consistently emphasized the importance of empowering women and girls and the value of making health care universally available. This year, too, I have addressed these two issues at separate meetings on the sidelines. At the same time, I wish to emphasize that the essence of Japan’s international engagement lies in the fact that we earnestly value education, as evidenced in Japan’s aforementioned contributions. Japan aspires to be a foster Power, that is, one that fosters human capacity. As I near the end of my remarks, I will briefly address three points.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“His initiative is to send Japanese teachers — seasoned veterans in math and science — to Cambodia, where they coach young men and women who are on track to become teachers. The initiative is called Teachers Without Borders. I find it very heart-warming to see people in Japan’s private sector devoting themselves voluntarily in this way to the education of young people, especially girls in Tanzania and Cambodia, purely on their own initiative, without seeking external validation. Over the next three years, the Government of Japan will provide enriched education to a minimum of 9 million children and young people in sub-Saharan African and Asian nations. We plan to expand e-learning for primary school children in Sri Lanka, as well as Internet-based mathematics and science education in Rwanda.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In Arusha, Tanzania, an area that the Maasai and others call home, where the high peak of Mount Kilimanjaro can be seen in the east and north-east, the Sakura All-Girls Secondary School opened in January 2016 through the efforts of a group of Japanese people. The school is entirely residential, in order to provide its students with absolute security and safety. The number of students has grown from 24 at the beginning to 162 this past spring. The Japanese Government supports the school financially, but it is run by non-governmental organizations, both Japanese and local. The school teaches science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In Cambodia, a Japanese entrepreneur has been working to improve education there — a project that is entirely his own brainchild.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Ikangaa, who considers Japan to be his second home, became a goodwill public-relations ambassador for Japan through the local office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Also assigned to that office was an energetic Japanese national, Miwa Ito. Ms. Ito and Mr. Ikingaa combined forces. She obtained sponsorship funding from 13 Japanese companies, and he searched for girls who could become future Olympians. Their efforts culminated in Tanzania’s first-ever women’s track meet, which was held in November 2017. A thousand elementary and junior high school-level girls living nearby were invited as spectators. However, they were not only there as onlookers; at the event educational materials on avoiding teenage pregnancy were distributed so that the girls could read them.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“If women were able to demonstrate the potential they hold, the world would sparkle even more, but that is obvious, is it not? In Japan, where the labour-participation rate for women has seen a marked rise, we are witnessing that self-evident fact on a daily basis. I am delighted that we were able to include what Malala is advocating in both the G-20 Leaders’ Declaration and another outcome document in its annex. We pledged to promote inclusive quality education for all girls and women. Japan wishes to run at all times at the very front of the pack with respect to such efforts. Now, let me share an example from Tanzania. Around the time I was turning 30 years old, there was a Tanzanian marathon runner, Juma Ikangaa, who was often a front-runner in the Tokyo Marathon. After he returned to Tanzania, Mr.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The Institute was founded by the late Norval Morris, a renowned criminologist, who was its first Director. By the end of September, it will have produced a large number of alumni, totalling more than 5,900 people, including 2,949 from Asia and 678 from Africa. In March, Malala Yousafzai visited Tokyo. She looked me straight in the eye and said that as many as 100 million girls lack the skills they need to have a good command of modern technology, for they do not undergo a minimum education of 12 years. She said that if all girls completed secondary school, they could contribute up to $30 trillion to the global economy. I had invited Malala to Japan before the Osaka summit of the Group of 20 (G-20), over which I would preside in June, hoping to highlight policies that empower women and girls.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“My remarks make it clear that the value Japan seeks to uphold in its engagement with the world is education, for the country’s primary objective is to empower every single individual. To continue to do so has been and remains the very essence of what Japan can contribute to the rest of the world. As for the gathering of law enforcement experts in Kyoto next spring, Japan has long sought to play a role in following up on thematic meetings. As early as 1962, with the expansion of knowledge in the area of crime prevention as its primary objective, Japan established in Tokyo the United Nations first specialized institute in that field, namely, the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In this context, there is a new generation of Japanese, one that is reliable and willing to carry forth the United Nations ideals, we can safely say. I would also like to remind the General Assembly of the meeting to be held in Japan in April 2020. The fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, commonly known as the United Nations Crime Congress, will convene in Kyoto. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime holds the meeting once every five years. Fifty years will have passed since 1970, when Japan hosted the same meeting, which was the first United Nations Crime Congress to be held outside Europe. At the peak of cherry blossom season, Kyoto will be welcoming visiting experts in law enforcement.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“The Japanese people consider this as an unparalleled opportunity, and they will once again turn their thoughts to the role that Japan is playing in the world. In my country, the period during which a long-standing economic slump caused people to become inward-looking is now a thing of the past. Dates that are raising awareness of our strong bonds with the world and of our people’s eyes turned outward and to the future — the Rugby World Cup, the fierce contests of which continue to be played out at this very moment; the Olympic and Paralympic Games that will be held next year in Tokyo; and World Expo 2025 that Osaka and the surrounding region will host — are written large on Japan’s calendar as landmark events.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“By once again receiving the support of numerous countries, we wish to serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council and make our best efforts towards further realizing the principles of the United Nations. I ask the Member States for their ardent support to this end. In Japan, a new Emperor has acceded to the imperial throne, and the ceremony at which His Majesty will declare this fact to both domestic and international audiences will soon take place, on 22 October. Heads of State and Government and major leaders from approximately 200 nations and international organizations will attend, and there is no greater joy than that of the well-wishing extended to us at the beginning of the Emperor’s new era.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“Under your presidency, Mr. President, the United Nations will commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding. On this occasion, I ask everyone to recall, Sir, that my country, Japan, in upholding the principles of the United Nations, has walked a steadfast path, always intending to realize the goals of the Organization. For the United Nations, which has now seen three quarters of a century since its founding, structural reform, especially of the Security Council, is absolutely imperative. We aim for the early realization of such reform. In addition, Japan is running in the 2022 election for a non-permanent seat in the Council.”
2019-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 74 (2019)
“In conclusion, I want to say that in the light of the lack of progress in reforming the Security Council, the significance of the United Nations in the twenty-first- century world is already being severely questioned. But that is precisely why Japan will never waver in its contributions to the Organization. I will end by pledging that Japan, alongside Secretary-General Guterres, will push forward with reform of both the Security Council and the United Nations as a whole.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The Conference, which Japan has hosted diligently since 1993, has earned the unwavering trust of national leaders all across Africa. At the Conference we will discuss universal health coverage, whose importance I have highlighted a number of times. And lest we forget, next year Japan hosts the Rugby World Cup, and in 2020 Tokyo is hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our eyes will continue to be fixed on the future. When Japan and the Japanese people fix their gaze squarely on the future, Japan increases in vitality. Japanese citizens focused on the future will become people who are determined to take on the responsibility of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The next generation of Japanese youth will be commendable flag bearers for the United Nations spirit. I am absolutely certain of that.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“At the end of April and the beginning of May next year, His Majesty the Emperor will abdicate and His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince will succeed to the throne. In fact, it is the first imperial succession in 200 years to result from a sitting Emperor’s abdication, and in October 2019, we will welcome guests of honour from around the world who are coming to express their good wishes. Next June, Japan will host the Group of 20 summit. As Chair of the meeting, I intend to lead the discussions about issues facing the international community, including the state of the global economy and environmental issues. Soon after, in August, Japan will host the seventh meeting of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“But hopefully this programme of ours will represent some hope for the teachers from Gaza and the children in their care. Twenty years from now, 200 teachers will have had the experience of visiting Japan, and the students taught by them will number in the thousands. I look forward to that day. The goal of Japanese diplomacy, which to some extent I have conveyed to the Assembly today, is to help to bring certainty to the future of the world and the region. In addition, what I want is for the young people who will live in the Japan of the future to vigorously take on challenges. The duty of our generation is to create an environment conducive to that. It is as if a new breeze is about to blow in Japan.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That is very promising, and it is Japan’s noble mission to cultivate the people who will protect and defend a free and open Indo-Pacific. As I was preparing this address, I created a new if modest programme. At the beginning of 2019, we will invite approximately 10 elementary and junior-high- school teachers from the Gaza Strip to Japan. That will be the first such group and we will continue to invite teachers every year. Teachers who come to a place such as Japan, so different for them both culturally and historically, will naturally see the situation in Gaza and the Middle East in a wider perspective, and we hope that the experience will enable them to see their own hometowns and region anew and work in a unique way to give them solace. It goes without saying that for peace to be achieved, efforts must be made on both sides.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The other day, foreign students in Japan proudly returned to their home countries of Malaysia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka with new academic degrees in hand, master’s degrees in maritime safety and security policy that can be obtained only in Japan. As well as the students that Japan’s Coast Guard sends to the programme, it also takes senior officials from various coast-guard authorities in countries all over Asia. The students who graduated the other day were the third cohort to enter the programme. Maritime order is a matter not of power but of the rule of law and a rules-based order. Every year, a class learning that enduring truth and taking it as a guiding principle for their lives will head out from Japan to the seas.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations lie at the confluence of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and in eras long past it was our forerunners, living in what we now call the Pacific island countries, who crossed those two oceans to introduce products to faraway East Africa. What I call our free and open Indo-Pacific strategy derives from our desire to preserve the blessings of open seas together with those countries, as well as with the United States, Australia, India and others, and indeed all countries and peoples who share those aims. What we must ensure is that the rule of law and a rules-based order control our broad and expansive seas and airspaces, and that they in turn are backed by solid institutions — hence my strategy.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I also want to comment briefly on relations between Japan and China. The mutual visits at the leadership level that began this year will continue, with me visiting China next month, to be followed by my invitation to President Xi Jinping to Japan, thereby expanding our bilateral relations and improving the stability of the entire region. When we have recast the current confrontational geopolitical structure in North-East Asia, the maritime corridor from the Arctic Ocean to the Sea of Japan and through the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean will become increasingly important. Japan, which is located right above it and also possesses a vast exclusive economic zone, hopes that we can ensure stability and peace in those waters, as well as in the airspaces above them.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Japan will not change its policy of seeking to resolve our unhappy past history and normalize relations with North Korea once the abduction, nuclear and missile issues are dealt with. We will be unstinting in assisting North Korea to unleash its potential. However, there is one thing I must reiterate over and over again. We will ensure that all Japanese abductees are returned. I am determined to make that a reality, and in order to resolve the issue, I am also ready to break through the wall of mutual distrust between us and North Korea, make a new start and meet with Chairman Kim Jong Un face to face. While so far nothing has been decided regarding a summit meeting between Japan and North Korea, I am determined that if we hold one it must help to resolve the abductions issue.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We must resolve the territorial issue between Japan and Russia and conclude a peace treaty between our two countries. Once a Japanese-Russian peace treaty is signed, peace and prosperity in East Asia will be more secure. At this time last year in this very Hall, I strongly urged North Korea to tackle its issues relating to abductions, nuclear power and missiles (see A/72/ PV.8). As someone who has called for the full implementation of all the relevant Security Council resolutions, I am extremely interested in the potential for change in North Korea, which is now at a crossroads where it will either seize the historic opportunity it has been afforded or fail to do so. North Korea has both untapped natural resources and a labour force whose productivity can be greatly enhanced.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“In order to expand free and fair economic rules, suitable for the twenty-first century, into the vast region extending from Asia and the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, the countries that have created the system and reaped the greatest benefits from it — that is to say, countries like Japan — must lead the effort. That is what I believe. At the beginning of my statement, I said that I would do everything in my power to recast the long- standing post-war structure of international relations in North-East Asia. Together with President Vladimir Putin I am now working to end the stalemate between our countries, which has seen no movement for more than 70 years. President Putin and I met at the beginning of this month in Vladivostok for our twenty- second summit meeting, and I will meet with him again in the near future.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That is evidenced by the fact that Japan’s direct investment has created employment in the United States for some 856,000 people nationwide — a number second only to what the United Kingdom has achieved. At present, in contrast to the 1.74 million vehicles exported annually from Japan to the United States, the number of Japanese cars manufactured within the United States is 3.77 million. That is a win-win situation at its finest. I intend for Japan and the United States to continue that kind of relationship. But that is hardly unique to our bilateral ties with the United States. Under the flag of free trade, Japan has built up relations with many countries and regions where we can mutually assist one another, and we will continue to do that going forward.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“In addition, Japan and the European Union have signed an economic partnership agreement whose scale and scope are worthy of special mention in history. But that said, we must not be complacent. I will have to push my efforts up a notch and aim still farther ahead. In addition to Japan’s commitment to the World Trade Organization, which is a given, I will make every possible effort to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive regional economic partnership, which will create an enormous free-trade area in East Asia. And above all, I value our new free, fair and reciprocal trade talks with the United States. Japan and the United States have both advanced the free trade system internationally for many years.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“But even though post-war Japan lacked resources, when it devoted itself to reaping the blessings of trade, it succeeded in realizing growth that was called miraculous. Japan was the very first country to prove through its own experience the principle of the relationship that exists between trade and growth and that has now become common sense. Japan has now taken on the mission of imparting the benefits of trade to the world. There have been times when I have risen above intense domestic debates by waving the flag of free trade. There was no greater joy for me than when the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement took final shape and was quickly approved by our National Diet.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That free trade system enabled the countries of Asia to achieve take-off one after the other and fostered the middle class in all of them, against a backdrop of the large-scale direct investment that Japan has made in those countries since the 1980s. In every case, that was made possible thanks to an international economic system that was rules-based, free and open. If Japan, the country that reaped the greatest benefits of all under that system, should ever fail in its support for maintaining and strengthening that system, who else should we expect to rise in support of it? Japan’s responsibility is indeed tremendous. This is also Japan’s mission, rooted in its own history. Other than the coal that supported modern Japan’s industrialization, our nation has had no other resources to speak of.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I have been accorded the privilege of continuing to serve as Japan’s leader for the next three years. As I address the General Assembly today for the sixth consecutive year, I do so with a feeling of renewed resolve. In the next three years, I will do everything in my power to strengthen the free trade system and to recast the post-war structure of international relations in North-East Asia. In my view, the Japanese people have been very much hoping to see their national leaders serve as flag bearers for free trade, since after the war Japan enjoyed remarkable growth thanks to the advantages of trading as a beneficiary of a free and open economic system.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“If it were to make use of those, there could be a path for North Korea to dramatically grow its economy and improve public welfare. That is where North Korea’s bright future lies. By failing to resolve the abduction, nuclear weapon and missile issues and by becoming a threat to all humankind, there is absolutely no future that North Korea can open up for itself. In order to change North Korea’s policies, we must strengthen our unity.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The resolution is nothing more than the beginning. We must prevent the goods, funds, people, and technology necessary for nuclear and missile development from heading to North Korea. We must make North Korea comply fully with the repeated resolutions. We must ensure the strict and full implementation of the series of Security Council resolutions by all United Nations States Members. What is necessary is action. Whether or not we can put an end to the provocations by North Korea is dependent upon the solidarity of the international community. There is not much time left. North Korea is in a truly fortunate location, adjoining the growth region of Asia and the Pacific. It has an industrious labour force as well as underground resources.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I will continue until the day when they will finally be in the arms of their parents and their family members. Japan will face up to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat through the Japan-United States alliance and through Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea acting in unity. We consistently support the stance of the United States that all options are on the table. Also, I appreciate the Security Council’s unanimous adoption, on 11 September, of resolution 2375 (2017), which imposes strict sanctions against North Korea. That clarified our intention to further intensify pressure on North Korea in order to force it to undertake a fundamental change in its path forward. But I must make an appeal to the General Assembly. North Korea has already demonstrated its disregard of the resolution by launching yet another missile.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In 1994, North Korea had no nuclear weapons, and even its ballistic missile technology was far from mature. Yet it is now working to attain hydrogen bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Again and again, attempts to resolve issues through dialogue have all come to nought. With what hope of success are we repeating the very same failure a third time? We must make North Korea abandon all nuclear and ballistic missile programmess in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner. What is needed to do that is not dialogue, but pressure. On 15 November, 40 years will have passed since a 13 year old girl named Megumi Yokota was abducted by North Korea. Megumi and many other abducted Japanese remain in North Korea even to this day. I will continue all possible efforts so they can set foot on Japan’s soil as soon as possible.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Finally, that same year, North Korea announced its withdrawal from the Six-Party Talks, stating it would never again take part in such talks. It was around that time that it was firing ballistic missiles on a repeated basis. Over the course of more than a decade, beginning in 1994, the international community continued its efforts for dialogue with North Korea with great perseverance, first through the Agreed Framework and later through the Six-Party Talks. However, what we had to learn is that during the time that dialogue continued, North Korea had no intention whatsoever of abandoning its nuclear or missile development. For North Korea, dialogue was instead the best means of deceiving us and buying time. More than anything else, the following fact demonstrates that.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Moreover, two years later, in February 2007, an agreement was concluded regarding what each of the six parties should do towards implementing the joint statement. A group of IAEA inspectors that had entered North Korea verified the shutdown of the nuclear-related facilities in Yongbyon, and in return North Korea received heavy fuel oil. The series of events made people think that, this time, tenaciously continuing dialogue had finally caused North Korea to change its actions. But what actually happened? In February 2005, while the Six- Party Talks were under way, North Korea declared unilaterally that it was already in possession of nuclear weapons. Moreover, in October 2006, it openly carried out its first nuclear test. Its second nuclear test was in 2009.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The concern was again that North Korea was continuing its uranium enrichment — and again we chose the path of defusing the situation through dialogue. North Korea, China, and Russia joined the three founding members of KEDO — Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea — to launch the Six-Party Talks in August 2003. Subsequently, after two years of twists and turns through the summer of 2005 into autumn, the six parties finally reached an agreement resulting in the release of a joint statement. North Korea committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programmes and to returning to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA safeguards.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Countries that recognized value in the KEDO framwork of providing incentives to change North Korea’s actions gradually came to join KEDO: the European Union, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Poland, the Czech Republic and Uzbekistan. North Korea betrayed the good faith of all those KEDO members. As one of the organization’s founding members, Japan had pledged to give a non-interest loan to KEDO and had fulfilled roughly 40 per cent of that pledge — that is, about $400 million of a $1 billion pledge. The second crisis occurred in 2002, when KEDO suspended its operations and North Korea, saying it would end the freeze on its nuclear-related facilities, expelled IAEA inspectors.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Taking KEDO as the implementing agent, we pledged to build and hand over two light-water reactors to North Korea and to provide 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil annually as a stopgap measure for its energy demand. Those steps were all carried out accordingly. However, as time went by, it came to be known that North Korea had been continuing steadily with its uranium enrichment. From the start, North Korea had never intended to abandon its nuclear ambitions. That had become readily apparent to all. After 2002, seven years after it was founded, KEDO suspended its operations. During that period, it can be said that North Korea defrauded the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan with regard to assistance.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“At the time, the threat that North Korea imposed amounted to little more than openly displaying its withdrawal from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other inspection regimes. However, tensions were felt by those of us that surmised the intent of that. After many twists and turns, in October 1994 what is known as the Agreed Framework was realized between the United States and North Korea. Under that framework, North Korea would be made to abandon its nuclear plans. In exchange, we would provide incentives to North Korea. To that end, Japan, the United States, and the Republic of Korea formed the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) in March the following year.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons either already are, or are on the verge of becoming, hydrogen bombs. Their means of delivery will sooner or later be intercontinental ballistic missile. Over more than 20 years since the end of the Cold War, where and when else, and to what dictators, have we allowed such self-indulgence? As it turns out, it is only towards North Korea that it has been allowed. That is the reality we find before us, and it was absolutely not a lack of dialogue that gave rise to the situation. Dialogue dissuaded North Korea from pursuing its nuclear ambitions. Dialogue has afforded many of us the relief that the world had been saved from a crisis. Believing thus, many of us were relieved — not just once, but twice. The first time was in the early 1990s.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Before and after that, on 29 August and again on 15 September — before the ink was even dry on Security Council resolution 2375 (2017), adopted to impose sanctions on North Korea — North Korea launched missiles. They were launched to fly over Japan and make a display of their cruising range. The gravity of that threat is unprecedented, and it is indisputably a matter of urgency. North Korea is attempting to dismiss with a smirk the efforts towards disarmament we have assiduously undertaken over the years. The non-proliferation regime is about to suffer a serious blow from its most confident disrupter ever. Qualitatively, that recent crisis is of an altogether different dimension than those we have eluded every time that some dictator has attempted to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Moreover, what Japan wants to safeguard in every respect is the free, liberal, open international order and multilateral frameworks. The world certainly holds high expectations towards the United Nations as the flag-bearer upholding those values. That is exactly why the Security Council should be reformed without delay, in response to the demands of the times. Japan will strive, together with its friends, to achieve such reforms. I had intended to state that Japan’s abiding determination is to play an active role for world peace as a permanent member of the Security Council. However, I have no choice but to focus my remarks on a single issue, that of North Korea. North Korea conducted a nuclear test on 3 September. Whether or not it was a hydrogen bomb test, its scale far exceeded that of previous tests.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I had intended to begin today by speaking of the sincerity with which Japan is implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, and I hoped to introduce the innovative ways by which we have been fostering public awareness of those Goals within Japan. I wanted to explain why the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative is important to me personally and to the Government of Japan. I have been saying we will make universal health coverage part of the Japan brand, and in December we will hold a major conference in Tokyo with that theme. The list of points I would have liked to raise here is long indeed — our contributions towards the rule of law, our determination to be steadfast in undertaking the Paris Agreement and our policy of addressing global infrastructure demand through quality investments.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Which position are we to take — that of undermining the values of the United Nations, or that of striving to strengthen the United Nations? If we choose the latter, then it goes without saying that Security Council reform is a matter of urgency. I will end my address here by emphasizing that point.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“The international relations that prevailed 71 years ago, at the end of the Second World War, are now relegated to the history books. They hold no relevance for the countries that have since then achieved their independence. At the sixth Tokyo International Conference for African Development, which Japan and the countries of Africa recently convened, I heard the leaders describe the fact that Africa has no permanent representation on the Security Council as a historical injustice, and I concurred in deep agreement. Africa’s long-term goal is to have permanent members on the Security Council by 2023, which Japan thoroughly supports. If we do not carry out a reform of the Security Council now, it may well be put off for another decade or two.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“It is a source of quiet pride for me that the relationship between Japan and the United Nations has for the past 60 years brought hearts together in this way in Asia, in Africa and indeed all around the world. This is Japan’s United Nations spirit. I pledge not to forget this and to foster it and hand it down to the next generation. I will end my address by pointing out the need for fundamental changes in the United Nations governance structure. Countries in Africa and Latin America have built up a degree of influence they never had before in global politics and the global economy, and yet they do not have satisfactory representation on the Security Council. This single example makes the present composition of the Security Council indefensible to the current generation.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“When they went their separate ways, as they were patting each other on the back and expressing regret that they had to part, it goes without saying that our engineering unit members, who had heard nothing but words of thanks from this man, were deeply moved. Juma Ago Isaac — the SDF members each wrote the name of this otherwise unknown man from South Sudan in their notebooks to remember him. No matter what the job or where it is, the Japanese engaged in international cooperation always consider this kind of encounter at local worksites to be their real reward. Wherever they go, nameless people become aware of their own abilities and realize that nation-building begins at the very place where they themselves are standing. The Japanese witnessing this are moved in ways that become memories lasting their entire lives.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“An unexpected visitor appeared at a worksite in Juba, South Sudan, where members of an engineering unit belonging to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (SDF) and wearing the blue helmets of the United Nations were carrying out activities. He said to them, “I am really thankful that Japan is building roads. I place my full confidence in you. Isn’t there anything I can do? Let me help you. I don’t need anything in return.” Again the next day, and the day after that, the man appeared at the worksite, where an arterial road was being laid in the capital of South Sudan, the youngest Member of the United Nations. On the third day, the man began doing the work that he knew would be necessary, and he continued working with the members of the SDF for eight days.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)