An Interest in Preventive Diplomacy

The history of JCCP begins with the three-year period when it was called “The Japan Center for Preventive Diplomacy (JCPD)”. Prior to that, there was another three-year period when JCPD’s foundations were laid by the research activities of “The International Study Group on Preventive Diplomacy (ISGPD)” organized by “The Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR)”. It was JFIR that gave birth to and fostered JCPD. JFIR is a policy-oriented think-tank concerned with international and diplomatic issues. Since its establishment, the maintenance of world peace has been an important focus of its interest. In fact, in October 1992, JFIR published a policy recommendation, “The Strengthening of the U.N. Peace Function and Japan`s Role”. However, at that time the term “conflict prevention” was seldom heard, and the use of the term “preventive diplomacy” was limited to specialists only. In 1996 Iriyama Akira, President of The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, suggested to Ito Kenichi, President of JFIR, that it was advisable for Japan to conduct in-depth research into what was then called “preventive diplomacy”. The two men joined forces to set up ISGPD within JFIR. Donowaki Mitsuro, former Ambassador to the Conference of Disarmament, was inaugurated as the chairman and under his guidance ISGPD conducted such activities as sending field missions to hotspots in Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin-America and holding international symposiums in Tokyo, Washington and Beijing. The conclusion of the Group’s final report recommended that “Japanese people also should play an active role on the world stage in the field of preventive diplomacy”.

Steps towards the Establishment of JCPD

The Establishment Meeting on Huly 19th, 1999.

However, as it is often the case, the Group’s recommendation attracted attention only from specialists and experts. It was difficult to expect someone to come out and say, “Understood! Let me take an initiative!” Ito recalls in his memoir contributed to “JCPD’s Annual Report of October 2000” as follows; “I cannot forget what occurred on 18th February 1999. I had decided to walk home to Yoyogi-Uehara from my university in Aoyama in order to get some exercise. As I was walking through Yoyogi Park, I heard a voice like a heavenly revelation. It said: “If nobody else is going to do it, why don’t you do it yourself?” Being a policy-recommending body, JFIR has made many recommendations, but, needless to say, not all of them have been adopted. The majority of them have not progressed beyond the point of being announced. However, this time I thought I should not let this one go on like that. If nobody else is willing to take an initiative, I should act myself. Though this is a ball I have thrown, if nobody is going to catch it, I must run ahead of the ball and catch it. Upon returning home, I took a pen and wrote in a single stroke “A Proposal for the Establishment of the Japan Center for the Promotion of Preventive Diplomacy” (at this stage the word “Promotion” was inserted).