UN expert on Somalia implores the Japanese legislatures for a "cerebral approach" in the new antipiracy bill

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The five prominent pirate centers in Somalia
(Click the map to see in full size)

(TOKYO 16 June) Appearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense at the Upper House of the National Diet (Japanese parliament) on Tuesday to discuss the efficacy of a Japan's original Anti-Piracy Measures Bill, the UN expert on conflict prevention, Mr. Desmond J. Molloy of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, implored the Japanese legislatures to take a more "cerebral approach" in dealing with the Somali pirates issues off the coast of defacto dysfunct Somalia.

In his testimony, Mr. Molloy appealed to the Members of the Committee that in dealing with the Somali-originated pirates, the international flotilla is not a sustainable or cost-effective solution. Rather, Mr. Molloy suggested that instead of continuing with the "contingency activitiy," intelligence and policing activity will have a "greater impact". Referring the current opearation as only causing a so-called "cockroach effect," where one will be faced with dispersal of the bug even if one squashes one out of a swarm of them, Mr. Molloy made the following recommendations to the legislatures in considering drafting laws to counter piracy in the Gulf of Aden:

• Careful mapping of key actors in piracy
• Sustained pursuit of criminal prosecution of major (warlord) perpetrators by UN and Western interests
• Confiscation of foreign criminally acquired assets of those families engaged in piracy (most leading families have dual citizenship in Western countries with assets located there)
• Acknowledgement by the international community regarding the pillage of fish resources and toxic dumping in Somali territorial waters; sanction against those perpetrating this theft
• Community based compensation through community capacity building investment with context sensitive organizations such as SAACID

Mr. Molloy's argument was well-received and legislatures from all parties engaged in a heated dicussion over whether Japan's participation in the flotilla is indeed a viable short-term solution to the problem, and how Japan can maximize its valuable experience in the Straits of Malacca, where Japan Coast Guard successfully managed to install RECAAP or Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery in Asia.

As its name stands, RECAAP is a regional cooperation organization to counter piracy in Asia which was created by the initiative of Japanese authorities. Another testifier argued that in the longrun, though it make take decades, a Somali-version of RECAAP could be envisioned.

For more information:

• A full resume of Mr. Molloy's testimony
• Mr. Molloy's powerpoint slides.
• Summary of the draft Anti-Piracy Measures Bill
• An offiicial statement on the bill by the Prime Minister.
• A webcast of today's Committee session (see down below).
  

DPJ envisions new role brokering Afghan ceasefire if it takes power (Japan Times)

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Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009

Kyodo News

The Democratic Party of Japan is looking to take an active role in brokering a ceasefire in Afghanistan between U.S.-led forces and Taliban militants if it topples the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and takes power in the next election, according to a draft plan obtained by Kyodo News on Saturday.

With public support for Prime Minister Taro Aso plummeting to historic lows, the main opposition party has been compiling foreign policy goals as it sets its sights on winning the election, which must be held by September.

The DPJ-led government will call on the United Nations to press for the withdrawal of U.S., NATO and Pakistani forces stationed in Afghanistan and instead set up an international team of truce monitors including Japan and several Arab countries not involved in the conflict, the draft said.

The envisioned ceasefire surveillance team would not carry arms and would support Afghan police and Pakistani paramilitary forces to maintain security. Japan would send the Self-Defense Forces, while calling on Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan to participate.

"We will make it clear that this will be different from the past involvement of foreign troops," a member who participated in compiling the draft said. "Not bearing arms will be an extremely important message that will help to establish peace."

Under the scheme, a nonpartisan group of lawmakers would be established so that working-level talks between Taliban representatives and Afghan and Pakistani ministerial-level officials can be held, according to the draft.

Japan would also host an international conference in Tokyo to find a path toward achieving peace in Afghanistan and ultimately invite Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Zardari to the capital to ink a formal agreement on terminating conflict in Afghanistan, according to the plan.

The plan may still face opposition within the DPJ, given the low probability of a ceasefire being reached in the unstable conditions plaguing in Afghanistan. It may also risk damaging Japanese-U.S. relations since new U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to increase U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

"The United States is beginning to study an exit strategy and there is still ample room for talks," another official in charge of compiling the draft said.

New Okinawa plan includes provisions for stationing servicemen for UNEPS

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Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama delivering his speech

On August 11, the Democratic Party of Japan held a public symposium on its new Okinawa Vision 2008 which outlines the whole of its basic Okinawa (U.S. base) policy designed to take effect after taking power of the government, according a local news source and the official party press release. The "Vision" has been released since July 1997 on a tri-annual basis and it represents a most formalized statement of DPJ's policy which requires the approval by the Next Cabinet or the shadow cabinet.

The Vision was approved on July 8 at the party's Next Cabinet meeting, and it lay out that a part of Okinawa's private airport (the Shimojishima Airport in Miyakojima) could be utilized as a stationing base for UNEPS in the future. Specifically, the provision outlined the utilization of the airport as follows (unofficial translation from the local newspaper article of Ryukyu Shinpo):

"The new Vision included provisions on constructing an outpost for the UNEPS (UN Emergency Peace Service) using the Shimojishima Airport in accordance with the Shimojishima Airport Utilization Plan of the Miyakojima City." (Ryuku Shinpo, 12 August 2008)

More specifically, the provision outlined the role of the airport as follows (unofficial translation):

VIII. Attraction of international organizations

Considering Okinawa’s geographical and historical characteristic that played the unique role of “Island of Peace” in various international negotiations including the 2000 Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit, attracting international organizations and UN offices to Okinawa (for example as a UN Pacific Rim Headquarters) is both meaningful and desirable for stability and development of East Asia as well as for sending the message of peace.

In practice, the Shimojishima Airport of Miyakojima City could be utilized to create outposts for UNEPS (a UN Emergency Peace Service) or a UN Human Security Centre for human resource development, as well as for enhancing the coordination with the ASEAN Rescue Team and the Japan Disaster Relief Teams that were recently dispatched to various disasters including the cyclone disaster in Burma and the Schezuan earthquake disaster in China. For this purpose we believe an active deployment of Miyakojima’s “2007 Shimojishima Airport Utilization Plan” is pertinent.

This was a first leap forward from theDPJ's initial policy on UNEPS that merely recommended the government to facilitate the establishment of UNEPS. Now the party is thinking about preparing to establish the UNEPS by itself once power transfer takes place.

Since the Vision is to be reflected in the party's Manifesto which will be finalized before the next general election, it is likely that the establishment of UNEPS would become an official party policy for the years to come.

Government to discuss possible introduction of international solidarity levy

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According to several news sources, the Japanese government has begun "discussions on the possible introduction" of international solidarity levies. The Tokyo Shinbun article dated July 28 read as follows:

The government on Sunday launched discussions on the possible introduction of an international solidarity levy for currency trading activities and airline ticket purchases to help fund development assistant programs for developing countries. In the coming months Japan is expected to officially join the international group of countries that are promoting the initiative.

According to the article, the government is considering "a currency transaction development tax of as low as 0.005 percent on foreign currency trading activities" and the implementation of "an airline ticket levy with which it can collect taxes from relatively wealthy people."

The currency transaction development tax, known globally as CTDL or Currency Transaction Development Levy, has been the policy target of our Office since the launch of the Parliamentary Group on International Solidarity Levy in February this year. We believe the "international group of countries" that promotes the international solidarity tax initiative refers to the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development, which our Parliamentary Group formally requested the government to join in June.

The Office of Senator Tadashi Inuzuka welcomes the government's decision to launch its official consideration of a possible introduction of an international solidarity levy. We believe the fact that their policy options include CTDL and airline ticket levy is a testament to the works of the Parliamentary Group in the Japanese National Diet and we will continue to put our utmost effort in materializing the introduction.

Below is a Kyodo News article which is deemed as the primary source of the news.

Monday, July 28, 2008

'Solidarity levy' eyed to pay for foreign aid

Kyodo News

The government on Sunday launched discussions on the possible introduction of tax systems for currency trading activities and airline ticket purchases to help fund development assistant programs for poor countries, Foreign Ministry sources said.

The government is considering the "international solidarity levy" mechanism to secure funds to help the world achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals aimed at stamping out poverty and tackling health problems in developing nations, the sources said.

Various studies have shown that the conventional official development aid system has failed to provide sufficient funds to achieve the goals. Some countries have advocated innovative financing mechanisms, including international solidarity levies.

The government plans to officially join the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies to Fund Development, a French-initiated international organization set up in 2006. Japan has been an observer country so far.
The government is mulling a currency transaction development tax of as low as 0.005 percent on foreign currency trading activities, according to the sources.

It also aims to implement an airline ticket levy with which it can collect taxes from relatively wealthy people, they said.

Tetsuji Tanaka, head of the Tokyo-based citizens' group altermonde, which promotes the financing mechanism, hailed the government's move.

"The world needs to create a framework in which money flows from people reaping the benefits of globalization to those suffering the negative impacts of the phenomenon," he said. "Japan's planned participation in the Leading Group will mark a huge step toward realizing such a system."

According to the Foreign Ministry, as of last year 28 countries had announced their intention to introduce the airline ticket levy, of which eight countries, including France and South Korea, have done so. The proceeds have been donated to the Leading Group and used for such purposes as tackling infectious diseases in developing countries.

No country has yet put into practice the currency transaction development levy.

Daily transactions in global currency exchange markets totaled $3 trillion in 2007. If a 0.005 percent levy were imposed on the transactions, about $33 billion, or one-third of the current level of global ODA, could be gathered.
Some financial industry experts point out that the levy system would also help stem transactions of speculative funds.

Calls for international solidarity levies have been growing in Japan. Some lawmakers established a bipartisan group to promote the system earlier this year.

In June, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda indicated his intention of examining the possibility of introducing the system to secure financial resources to combat global warming.

Parliamentary group on solidarity levy submits a formal request to the Foreign Minister

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A Japanese parliamentary group submits a Letter of Request urging the government to take lead in solving "Problems without passports"

by Takahiro Katsumi, PGISL Secretariat

(Tokyo, 3 June 2008) In the early Tuesday morning, a delegation from the non-partisan group of parliamentarians including Senator Tadashi Inuzuka (DPJ) that seek for the establishment of international solidarity levy, paid a formal visit to Minister of Foreign Affairs MasahikoKOHMURA to submit a formal Letter of Request to the government to join the Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development. (*1)

The delegation of the the Parliamentary Group on International Solidarity Levies (PGISL) emphasized in the request that the Leading Group is serving as "breeding grounds for innovative and effective ideas" and that Japan as the host of the upcoming G8 Toyako Summit should consider global issues such as climate change, poverty, and epidemics as "problems without passports" and that Japan should lead the world in providing "solution without borders". The request thus concluded by urging the government to join the Leading Group which is acting as an effective forum to develop new ideas addressing these "problems without passports".


Background

PGISL is a non-partisan, all-party parliamentary group consisted of approximately 40 original members from both houses of the parliament (the National Diet). It was established in Feburary 28 of this year, which holds the following as its objectives to be achieved before the opening of the Toyako Summit:

1. Organize and provide venues for study group sessions to study relevant systems and to facilitate substantial discussions in the Diet.
   
2. Push the Japanese government towards participation in the “Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development” (LGS).
3. Push the Japanese government to take the role of a lead nation for the “CTDL taskforce” (*2) which was proposed by the LGS.
   
   

Accordingly, PGISL until today has hosted more than five study sessions since its establishment, in a period of three month. For the study session the Group invited experts from in and out of Japan, such as Dr. Sony Kapoor from his newly established think tank "DEFINE", Professor Takehiko UEMURA from the Chiba University, and Mr. Kenzo OSHIMA, former UN Ambassador and now Deputy Director of JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). PGISL has also sent its staff to the Leading Group Plenary Meeting held in Dakar on April to monitor and better understand the dynamics and reality of the Group. In particular, the PGISL has recognized the growing international acceptance towards CTDL(*3) and its effectiveness, hence promoting Japan's participation in the Leading Group to lead the Taskforce on CTDL.

The formal request to join the Leading Group signifies the very first step in rearing Japan to lead the CTDL Taskforce, which is our Group's primary objective.

Glossary of terms


For more details: (Note: all except the February press release is in Japanese)
Text：Letter of Request (3 June 2008)
Reference：History of the Leading Group (2 June 2008)
Reference：PGISL Press release on the establishment of the Group, en (29 February 2008)