国連の新しい課題

国連と日本外交

抄録

The number of the United Nation's members has recently been increasing very rapidly. Moreover, most of those new members are newly developing countries of Asia and Africa. These phenomena naturally have changed the characteristics of the United Nations.
In the beginning, the United Nations maintained homogeneity to a point. But, the countries which had common character and which formed the central power in the United Nations, have become a minority. The heterogeneous countries, which are newly developed, have become more than half in number. This character change had resulted in weakening of the United Nations and caused people to talk about a second United Nations. Also, it is reflected in the management of the United Nations because the United States, Britain and other nations of the free bloc can no longer neglect actions of those rapidly increasing new nations in voting and have to answer to requests of those developing countries. Disarmament, Decolonization and Development, which are called the three Ds, are recognized as new tasks of the United Nations. Among them, two are relative to the developing countries. The center of gravity of the United Nations has begun to shift from the East-West relation to the North-South relation. In other words, the focus of the United Nations has shifted toward an economic question. Even the question of limitation of armament, which related to the highest object of the United Nations, is effected by the growth of the developing countries and is discussed in the connection with economic questions. The recent General Assembly focussed on economic development. The countries, which are granted and guaranteed their political independence by the United Nations, are now requesting the United Nations to solve their economic questions also. The proposal for the United Nation's assistance to raise women's status in the underdeveloped countries, which was proposed in the third committee of the 17th General Assembly, symbolizes those countries' request for bread instead of political rights. This 17th General Assembly was called the quiet assembly but this shows that the assembly had complicated and serious economic questions and did not allow anyone to give high tone and wordy political speeches. Thus when the North-South question is becomming significant in the United Nations, Japan might be the one who is in a very difficult situation. About the North-South question, Japan has completely contradicting sides in this question. Because Japan, though being one of the developed countries, still has an underdeveloped element, and she shares her interest with the underdeveloped countries. This question is as important as the question of East-West conflict which relates to peace and stability of the world, and has a direct effect on Japan's existence. Therefore, Japan is now forced to give her own and independent decision, in the precise sense, for the first time after the 2nd world war. Former Minister of Foreign Affaires, Mr. Shigemitsu, expressed Japan's determination to be a bridge between East and West at the time of Japan's affiliation. Now, Japan is faced with testing this determination. This is a really difficult task for Japan but important mission to complete.