| Posted: April 30 2005,10:02 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
Firstly,
The Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of Peace has been
organized in relation to a culture of peace and nonviolence and 40
issue of the news have been published. Also HP was built and
CPNN(Culture of Peace News Network) has been in action for five years.
Secondly, The Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of
Peace has been ranked as one of the most important auspice members.
Culture of peace has been given the good position in UNESCO in Japan.
Thirdly, through many public relations, the viewpoint of
"culture of peace" has been established among peace movement in Japan
using the words.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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The
greatest problem is the violent culture in Japan. There are corporal
punishments and bullying at school and violent TV programs and videos
at home. There are also violent scenes in magazines, movies and comics.
The scenes that affirm violence are shown everywhere.
The second problem is that Japanese Government broke the Constitution
of Japan which decided in Article 9 not to have any army. To meet the
demand of USA, Japan admitted the presence of US army and sent
self-defense force to Iraq.
The third problem is that
Japanese Government distorted the crimes Japanese army caused about 60
years ago. History textbooks has been rewritten for worse and one
special textbook was forced to use.
For our Society, the first
difficulty was that in Japan people are apt to think that peace means
the situation without wars and nuclear weapons through the experience
of the World War. Peace Education means the teaching of the nuclear
weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, air raid attacks and the battles in
Okinawa. In workers unions and peace movements, peace has been "anti
wars" or "anti nuclear arms".
So it has been very
difficult to make people understood the culture of peace. We spent a
lot of time to make understood the difference between peace and culture
of peace to fellow groups or people who made efforts for peace.
The second difficulty was the negative attitude of the Japanese
Government to this decade, even if the decade was decided in UN. The
Government didn’t have any opportunities to advertise the culture of
peace. UNESCO Committee in the Government also had no positive attitude
to the decade. Local governments and mass media also had no positive
attitude except only a few autonomies.
The third
difficulty was the small membership of our Association. We have only
about 200 members in the Association and have too much works to do.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
|
The
member of The Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of Peace have
been making great efforts for developing the culture of peace written
as below.
Organize The Japanese Society for Developing the
Culture of Peace * Objectives: To let people know Declaration and
Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace and take away every kind of
violence.
* Beneficiaries: People living in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
* Resources: membership fee and money from project activities
*
Results: We introduced the words of Culture of Peace and many
people acknowledged the importance of non-violence. Many people began
to believe that every conflict should be solved without violence.
(2) Advertisement of Culture of Peace and Nonviolence
* Objectives: To let know the Resolution and the contents of the resolution
* Beneficiaries: Every people who live in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
*
Resources: We have no special public resources. Each member has tried
his or her best to let know the culture of peace in every
opportunity(writing in magazines, lecture in schools, public lecture,
etc). Our association published membership news almost every month and
gave information on culture of peace. We haven’t use any special money
for advertising.
* Results: We have spread the thoughts on culture of peace and nonviolence in Japan in some area.
(3) Lectures in Schools and Public Lectures
*
Objectives: To spread the spirits of "culture of peace and nonviolence"
all through Japan and contribute the construction of peaceful society
and peaceful world.
* Beneficiaries: students and citizens
* Location of activities: All through Japan
*
Resources: We used public facilities for lectures and classrooms for
lessons. The title of public speeches were "Declaration on Culture of
Peace", "Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace", "International
Year for Culture of Peace and Nonviolence", the International Decade
for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World",
etc. We used only small money for printing and other stationeries.
*
Results: Many magazines of books used "culture of peace",
"non-violence" and we could spread the spirits. We also put great
importance on Korean peaceful unity in future and had good results,
though TV Programme broadcasted about the problems of North-Korea..
(4)Publication on Culture of Peace
* Objectives: To spread the philosophy and activities for culture of peace and nonviolence to many people in Japan
* Beneficiaries: Every people who live in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
* Resources: publishing company
*
Results: We published three booklets. 'From the Culture of
Violence to Culture of Peace', 'The Post-violence Declaration', 'Lesson
from Non-violence by Gandhi'. Thousands of people could have a chance
to read these booklets in 3 years.
(5)CPNN in Japan
* Objectives: To communicate one another about peace through internet and have chances to propose his or her opinion in HP
* Beneficiaries: Every people who live in Japan and use internet.
* Location of activities: All through Japan and other countries
*
Resources: CPNN Japan is based on the server of Wako University and we
haven’t pay any fee for it. The staff of CPNN Japan are students and
the teacher of Wako University. They gathered once a week or so and
renewed the pages.
* Results: Many people can access everywhere
and every time. Many teachers used the opinions on HP to his or her
lessons. Some teachers tried to send articles with students to CPNN
Japan. More than hundreds of thousands of people accessed for CPNN
Japan for five years.
(6)Action for Hague Appeal Peace Education Global Campaign
*
Objectives: To popularize the Hague Peace Appeal adopted by the World
Citizen Conference in 1999 in Hague, Holland. Especially spread the
activities for peace education in Japan.
* Beneficiaries: citizens in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
*
Resources: Workshop and public lectures by Japanese teachers and
foreign guests. Expense was paid by participants to workshops and
public lectures.
* Results: We are now preparing for the book
titled "Education for Avoiding War" by B. Reardon. It will spread the
importance of the peace education. Hague Appeal was and is very
important document for peace education. This movement have developed
the thoughts of nonviolence in Japan.
(7) Collect the Signature of Manifesto 2000
*
Objectives: To develop the non-violent atmosphere by signing the
signature. this Manifesto 2000 was collected in 2000 for the
International Year for Culture of Peace and we continued to collect
them after that.
* Beneficiaries: citizens in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
*
Resources: We tried to spread this signature but have no special ways
to hand out them. From this year we will be able to sign the signature
on HP.
* Results: Our association was nominated as the main
organization for this movement by the Federation of UNESCO Japan. Not a
few people know this movement but not so many. We will continue this
until 2010.
(8) Open the HP of the Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of Peace
*
Objectives: To advertise the International Decade for a Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World and to
introduce the campaign and activities of our association.
* Beneficiaries: citizens in Japan
* Location of activities: All through Japan
* Resources: HP was opened personally and he is one of the organizers.
*
Results: On internet system, people can find our association easily by
retrieving words. Our HP was opened 5 years ago and more than hundreds
of thousands of people have accessed to the HP. Some people asked the
secretariat how to join the members.
(9) Publication of the News Letters
*
Objectives: To advertise the International Decade for a Culture of
Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World and to
give information to the members to make good use of it.
* Beneficiaries: citizens and especially members of the association
* Location of activities: all through Japan
* Resources: Basically the secretary sent the news by mail almost every month. It cost about 2000$ a year.
*
Results: Publication started in 2000 and now 2005(April), the number of
issue is 40. A lot of information and news have been introduced for 5
years.
The Association held the staff meeting every month to prepare
activities and lecture meetings, etc and the news have been a good
resource.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
Firstly
we have to stop the killings by any arms. Even though there are reasons
for using weapons, we must not kill someone. Actions to promote
international peace and security in the "Programme of Action on a
Culture of Peace", to promote general and complete disarmament
under
strict and effective international control is the main action and this
is the same philosophy as Article 9 of Japanese Constitution.
Secondly,
we have to prevent the deaths in the world. It means that we have to
prevent people from dying by hungers and disasters.
Thirdly, we have to make our society without any violence. We have to
stop the violence against weak people like children, women and the
disabled people. We have to also stop the violence in mass media.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
The
Japanese Society for Developing the Culture of Peace was registered as
one of the supporting members of Japanese Federation of UNESCO which is
one of the official members in UN organization. It will make great
progress to have partnerships with many other groups and will have a
chance to communicate with many other parties which dedicate to peace
movement. We sent questionnaires to many groups and now preparing for
the information pamphlet. The challenge is how to expand and strengthen
the relation.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
In
the first place, we need to grade up our public relations through books
and pamphlets. We are now preparing the booklet about a culture of
peace titled "Eight Peace Keys"(tentative title). This booklet was
written according to the 8 peace keys including 6 topics in Manifesto
2000.
We will try other translation for publishing books.
In the second place, we will access to mass media. We have to
work the media not only to stop violent programs but positively take up
good programs with cultural, peaceful and nonviolent content.
In the third place, we will prepare a lot of opportunities to
discuss how to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence in Japan.
There may be more than thousand of peace group in Japan. If all the
group work together for the same object, we will be able to change the
situation.
Lastly, we will widen our activities to get new members so that we can do greater works a culture of peace.
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Postal address of organization
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2-15-1-1004 Kawaguchi, Kawaguchi City, Saitama, 332-0015, Japan
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E-mail address of organization
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takiguchi-masaru@r8.dion.ne.jp
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Website address of organization
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http://homepage2.nifty.com/peacecom/cop
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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Each
key is important for our work, but (1) Fostering a culture of
peace through education (8) Promoting international peace and security,
have been the most important
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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.In
relation to children’s right, (5)Fostering democratic participation has
also been important as well as (6) Advancing understanding, tolerance
and solidarity from the view point of conflict resolution.
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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