Around Tokyo for Peace

Since returning from Hiroshima and Kyoto last week, I have been keeping busy this past week searching for suitable places for summer internship work. I visited two places this week that are very different ideologically around the issue of Japanese foreign policy and the country's pacifist constitution. One place, Peace Boat, is a non-governmental organization that promotes peace, human rights, and equal and sustainable development for the environment. They accomplish this by chartering a passenger ship that travels the world on peace voyages and creates a neutral space for people to engage in dialogue and mutual cooperation while at sea. They also seem to be at the forefront at organizing Japanese citizens around not altering the Japanese pacifist constitution. In fact, last year they organized a Global Article 9 Campaign and Conference that brought together many groups and over 30,000 to show support for the pacifist constitution. This organization would be very interesting to work with and a valuable resource for my own research.

I also visited a Japanese think-tank, PHP Research Institute, that does research on Japanese foreign policy and has an in-house expert on Article 9 issues. This organization is not as far to the left as Peace Boat in its ideological views, but it appears to be doing interesting research around the issue and has a wide network with others doing similar work. I still have a few more places to contact and visit before I make a final decision about where I will be interning this summer.

Yesterday, I also had the opportunity to have lunch with a fellow Amherst alumni originally from Japan and who is working at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). I first met him at an Amherst-Williams alumni event last November here in Tokyo. We kept in touch, meeting a few times to talk Japanese politics. He works in the U.S.-Japan Security section of MoFA and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. He also introduced me to one of his colleagues, a new hire just out of graduate school and around my age. After lunch yesterday, he gave me a short tour of MoFA, which was my first time inside a Japanese federal government building. It was great to see where the thinking and implementation of Japan's foreign policy takes place. It was also great to see pictures of all of the foreign dignitaries that have visited. And yes, there were lots of pictures of Secretary of State Clinton from her visit there a few weeks ago.

Lastly, I unexpectedly saw the new face of Japan's soft power, Japan's new "ambassadors of cute." One of them was passing by as I entered the building. Talk about novel ideas! Japan continues to get more interesting by the day!

Best,

JRG