Lecture on Foreign Policy “Greater possibilities for Japanese contributions to the field of international rule making”

Kyoto University School of Government invited Mr. Takayuki Shikata, the manager of economic treaties at the International Law Office, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), to give a lectur on April 22nd, 2010. The lecture was titled “Greater possibilities for Japanese contributions to the field of international rule making.”

Mr. Shikata, who is a graduate of Kyoto University Faculty of Law, started his lecture with his memories of being an undergraduate student, and then talked about his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As an example of the rule-making process in the field of economic cooperation, Mr. Shikata first talked about the 1991-1993 negotiation process for revising the DAC list (the list of ODA receiving nations). Mr. Shikata introduced the meaning of the “Japan-U.S. negotiations of deregulation” in the context of the Japan-U.S. economic relationship from 1995 to 1997. He revealed that MOFA in fact took a surprisingly positive attitude to some of the U.S.’s requests at the time, despite the general discourse that such requests were perceived to be “foreign pressure.” He then introduced the case in which Japanese ODA was used in an environmental preservation project in Costa Rica through an American NGO; this eventually led to　the strengthening of the Japanese presence in the U.S.. Through this case, participants were able to realize how diplomacy could expand broadly.

In addition, regarding the present extensive economic cooperation in the areas of East Asia and Oceania, Mr. Shikata suggested how the FTA and EPA could play their roles in the present situation, where various frameworks already exist.

Finally, the speaker gave advice to students who would like to work in MOFA, as well as answering questions about the framework and term of establishment of the Union of East Asia; the respective positions of Japan and the U.S. toward the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction; and the significance of Japan’s campaign to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Thus concluded a very interesting lecture, after a lengthy question-and-answer session.

The German Consul General lectures at Kyoto University School of Government; "Twenty Years after the Fall of the Wall"

On December 7, 2009, Dr. Alexander Olbrich, the German Consul General of Osaka-Kobe, gave a lecture on the theme; “Twenty Years after the Fall of the Wall” at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University.

Not only students and professors of the Graduate School of Law, but also many students of the School of Government gathered at the lecture hall and enjoyed the lively and informative lecture, which described vividly the turbulent time from the end of the Second World War to the fall of the Wall and the “Wiedervereinigung (reunification of Germany).”

Dr. Olbrich first surveyed the history of the division of Germany, which started from the joint occupation of the four Allies, the blockade of Berlin and the construction of the Wall. He described the lifestyle and social conditions of people at the end of the regime of the German Democratic Republic. He explained how the demand of people for freedom was generated due to the scandal in local elections. According to the lecture, this demand first led to the “European Picnic,” secondly to the numerous demonstrations encouraged by one tenth of all East German citizens, then to the resignation of Chairman Honecker, and finally to the fall of the Wall. In addition the Consul General told how passports for free transit to the West were granted instantly to people by accident, from which we had the feeling that we witnessed how the history was made.

After the lecture, Dr. Olbrich was generous enough to spend a lot of time answering questions from students and professors. He answered various questions, such as about official aid from the Federal Republic of Germany to the migrants from the German Democratic Republic in the East; the stationing of NATO forces in Germany; and the situation of neo-Nationalism in Germany today.