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Understanding Japan’s Peacebuilding in Concept and Practice

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Abstract

In the post–Cold War era, Japan has developed its own version of peacebuilding in concept and practice and has taken a non-coercive approach to peacebuilding. It has been underpinned by domestic norms of pacifism. This article elaborates on the underexplored theme of Japan’s peacebuilding by focussing on its conceptual basis and three key dimensions of practice. It aims at providing a refined understanding of the Japanese version of peacebuilding, which encompasses highly comprehensive activities in and beyond troubled regions, while carefully excluding the role of military coercion. This article first presents a brief overview of the term ‘peacebuilding’ understood internationally. It then examines Japan’s understanding of the concept of peacebuilding. It consists of the ‘consolidation of peace’ as an immediate contribution to peace and human security, and ‘state-building’ as establishing and enhancing political, economic and social frameworks for durable peace in the long run. The third section of this article investigates three important dimensions of Japan’s peacebuilding practice: (1) the on-the-ground effort in troubled regions consisting of non-military peacekeeping and the provision of foreign aid; (2) taking leadership in developing principles of, and approaches to, peacebuilding in international forums; and (3) human resource development for fostering civilian peacebuilders at home. Finally, this article concludes that Japan is carving out its niche in the field of peacebuilding, suggesting that it is constructing an identity as a peacebuilder.

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Notes

  1. Japanese peacebuilders comprise SDF personnel, civilian officials from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and civilian experts of the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Centre (HPC).

  2. In ‘An Agenda for Peace’, four activities are defined as follows: preventive diplomacy is regarded as a set of activities to seek ‘to identify at the earliest possible stage situations that could produce conflict’ and to try ‘to remove the sources of danger before violence results.’ In this sense, the central aim of this operation is to prevent a region from developing into conflict. Peacemaking is a set of mediation and conciliation processes to bring hostile parties to agreement, if conflict erupts. This is followed by peacekeeping defined as actions undertaken by military, police and/or civilian personnel authorised by the UN, with the consent of all the parties in the troubled region. Thus, according to the report, peacekeeping is ‘a technique that expands the possibilities for both the prevention of conflict and the making of peace’ and in many cases it serves as ‘a prerequisite for peace-building.’ As the fourth activity, peacebuilding was defined as a set of post-conflict efforts to ‘identify and support structures which will tend to consolidate peace and advance a sense of confidence and well-being among people’.

  3. The US government attempted to modify its own efforts from militarily oriented ones to more civilian oriented ones by establishing the Office for Reconstruction and Stabilization under the Department of State in 2004. It has a mandate to coordinate and integrate all US departments and agencies with relevant capabilities in undertaking post-conflict reconstruction and stabilisation activities. This was also upgraded as the Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations, which aimed at improving interagency coordination for peacebuilding. However, according to Konishi and McClean [17], despite this progress, significant discrepancies between the military and civilian resources utilised in the field of peacebuilding remain in place.

  4. It is worth recognising a key difference in argument between those of Gilson and Lam. Gilson ([4], pp. 46–47) argues that Japan is merely playing a reactive and ad hoc role in building peace. It only pays ‘lip service to international demands for greater participation in peacekeeping and reconstruction, and to follow Western counterterrorism agendas’. In contrast, Lam ([5], p. 6) suggests that Japan is playing an active role in peacebuilding on the basis of a detailed analysis of five cases in the Southeast Asian region. The latter argument is empirically sounder than the former when considering Japan’s comprehensive peacebuilding practice, which is examined in this section.

  5. The set of guidelines are known as ‘Five Principles’ of participation in UN peacekeeping operations. In order for Japan to participate in them, it requires: 1) a ceasefire agreement between parties concerned; 2) local consent for Japan’s participation in them; 3) impartiality; 4) suspension of operations when the above three conditions are violated; and 5) minimum use of weapons. The fifth guideline was revised twice in 1998 and 2001 ([7], 138). Prime Minister Abe’s security bills in September 2015 also modify it in two ways. First, SDF personnel may use weapons to aid geographically distant peacekeepers of other countries under attack. Second, they may also use weapons for the purpose of execution of peacekeeping missions.

  6. They include the United Nations Operations in Mozambique (ONUMOZ; May 1993 to January 1995), the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL; March–April 1994), the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights (UNDOF; February 1996 to present) and the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET; July–September 1999). Between March and May 2002, 680 engineering personnel and ten headquarters’ officers were also sent to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). An additional 930 personnel were also deployed to the subsequent mission, the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) from May 2002 to June 2004.

  7. In the mid-1960s when Japan gradually became one of major donors to developing countries, MOFA’s policy papers wrote that its own foreign aid should consist of not only financial and material assistance but also non-material components such as ‘skills, knowledge, and human resource development of those who acquire them’ [48]. In particular, after the establishment of JICA in 1974, Japan began facilitating the development and enhancement of human resources by not only sending Japanese foreign aid officials to developing countries but also accepting government officials, engineers and researchers of those countries to Japan for training purposes [48, 49]. Since then, human exchange of officials and experts in foreign aid has been considered crucial for human resource development of the both sides, Japan as an aid provider, and developing countries as aid recipients.

  8. These include two components: a civilian experts course that is designed for civilian officials and people who currently work in their own fields but who will potentially engage in peacebuilding in the near future, and a short-term seminar on basic peacebuilding that is designed more broadly for civilians who have an interest in peacebuilding.

  9. They are Afghanistan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

  10. Also, Japan has been involved in human resource development projects in peacekeeping centres outside Japan such as those in Africa. For instance, in February 2008, it announced a human contribution to the enhancement of training programmes in five centres in Africa, including the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Ghana. In particular, five Japanese experts from JICA, the Japanese Ministry of Defence (MOD) and SIPCH were also sent to the training programmes as their instructors at the KAIPTC between 2008 and 2013 [57–60]. In addition, the Japanese government announced the provision of US$14.5 million in repairing facilities and providing necessary equipment in those five centres. It also provided the KAIPTC with a total of US$1.1 million as ongoing financial support for these purposes in 2010 and 2011 [58, 59].

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    Tadashi Iwami

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I confirm that this article has been prepared in conformity with the journal’s ethical standards. This article is based partly on my Ph.D. research on Japan’s identity construction as a ‘peacebuilding state’ in international society, conducted at the University of Otago from 2011 onwards. During my research, I have received a Ph.D. scholarship from the University and financial support of a Japanese studies fellowship from the Japan Foundation. I have also received a funding from the University in 2015 for writing this article. I declare that this research does not involve human participants. Also, I have no competing interests.

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Iwami, T. Understanding Japan’s Peacebuilding in Concept and Practice. East Asia 33, 111–132 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-016-9255-9

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