While the realization of kyosei (a Japanese word meaning “living and co -existing in
harmony”) is something we earnestly hope for the international community and every
person living in it, when we look at the state of the world, we see wars, regional conflicts,
a widening gap between rich and poor, and the expansion of autocracies. This paper
presents an argument from the case of human rights issues in Southeast Asia and
refugee issues in Japan to discuss the challenges Japan faces and its future prospects
for kyosei in the international community.
First, this paper focuses specifically on Japan's development assistance and business
practices in countries with poor human rights records. It examines Japanese
development assistance in Laos, where there are enforced disappearances and
restrictions on speech, and then in Myanmar, where the democracy movement was
violently suppressed after the military coup. In order for Japan to contribute to the
resolution of human rights issues, it is first necessary to discuss how Japan should
provide (or not provide) development assistance to countries where affected populations
have no say in development projects that impact their lives, or where the state
perpetrates human rights violations. The question is how Japan, as a donor country,
can respond in a transparent manner to state-sponsored human rights violations anddemand that the governments of partner countries end such practices.
Secondly, with so many refugees and displaced persons fleeing armed conflicts and
situations of violence around the world, how Japan can contribute to solving the refugee
problem is another important issue when considering the realization of kyosei . As
Japan’s immigration policies become stricter and trends in Japanese society move
toward exclusion, the debate over refugees and displaced persons from Ukraine and
Myanmar should be used as an opportunity to reexamine the nature of coexistence with
foreign nationals in Japan.
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