The Land of the Rising Sun

Pooja Krishna H A, reporting from the United Nations Economic and Social Council, presents this play-by-play of an interview with the Delegate of Japan.

Reporter: Sir, how do you define ‘Gender Equality’?

Delegate of Japan: “Gender Equality should be common for both men and women.” The Delegate, claiming to be a feminist, himself, said that even though he agreed that women should be empowered, men, people of the transgender community, and other genders must be given equal opportunity to empower themselves. Gender equality, according to the Delegate, could be applied to a lot of variants, like the workplace, poverty, public service, etc.

Reporter: But sir, same-sex marriage isn’t legal in Japan. At the same time, Japan allows its citizens to marry in a country where same-sex marriage is legal. How does that work out?

Delegate of Japan: Very soon, we will come up with a definite policy. The Senate was having very diverse opinions. Even though the Japanese government (and the Delegate, himself) supported LGBTQA+ rights, it was having a tough time passing the motion, but the Delegate confirmed that the matter was being discussed in the Senate, and that a solution would be proposed soon.

Reporter: Thank you sir. Now, you mentioned that the Ganga Action Plan was failing, and you recommended that India look at its own problems before providing aid to other countries. What about the problems in your own country? For example, the River Basin Management plan.

Delegate of Japan: “We are expecting positive results before 2030.” The Delegate replied that the River Basin Management plan, being a recent amendment, had not been fulfilled to its highest capacity, and that the country couldn’t comment on its success or failure, but that they were expecting positive results by the year 2030.

Reporter: Sir, finally, do you think ‘Peace’ is an important agenda?

Delegate of Japan: Peace and Justice have vital roles to play in any context. Peace is very much required to fulfil the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions being one of them). The Delegate also brought up the Hiroshima-Nagasaki incident, saying that it wouldn’t have occurred if there had been peace among the countries.

(The Delegate wouldn’t, however, comment on the motivation behind the Pearl Harbor incident.)