Japan to Cut Its Financial Support to U.N.

[cstaylor]

Japan to Cut Its Financial Support to U.N.

Japanese diplomats calculate that Japan's gross domestic product accounts for only 14.4 percent of the global economy. But Japan pays 19.5 percent of the United Nations budget, or almost $1 billion a year. By contrast, the United States accounts for 30 percent of world gross domestic product, but pays only 22 percent.

"Japan cannot just give sweet faces to everybody," Yukio Okamoto, chairman of the prime minister's Task Force on Foreign Relations, said in an interview here on Monday. "We have to question: Why are we the only country in the world with inflated cost on our shoulders?"

At the United Nations, Japanese officials say they are angry that the world body has failed them on two counts.

First, they say, United Nations diplomats were happy to have Japan pay one-fifth of the budget but were never moved to take the basic diplomatic step of removing a clause from the United Nations' founding charter that describes Japan as a "former enemy" nearly six decades after the end of World War II.

"The `enemy' clause ? no Japanese can understand why the U.N. continues such symbolism," Mr. Okamoto said.

For more information, you can refer to this document from 1995.

[cstaylor]

What a bunch of whiners... it doesn't even say "Japan", and includes all of the Axis powers:

Article 53

The term enemy state as used in paragraph 1 of this Article applies to any state which during the Second World War has been an enemy of any signatory of the present Charter

So that includes Germany and Italy too.

[Jack]

I would whine too if I was paying almost 20% of the organization's costs and be referred to as an ennemy.

[GuyJean]

I would whine too if I was paying almost 20% of the organization's costs and be referred to as an ennemy.

I think it says 'former enemy', and I'm not sure how easy it is to delete things in the UN Charter. Can you erase things in your constitution?

There are amemdments that can cancel out the original intention of a resolution, but I'm under the impression the original resolution, or in this case parts of the Charter, can't be all out deleted]Why are we the only country in the world with inflated cost on our shoulders?[/quote]
Ummmm. Number 2 economy in the world, no military budget, lost WWII, and basically the 51st (or is it 52nd?) State. Think of Japan as America's Okinawa

They shouldn't bitch too much, or the UN might force Japan to accept more than 12 refugees a year! I think it's a fair trade: pay more fees to keep the xenophobic tendencies alive! Although Suicidal Tendencies is a better band.. Oh wait. Japan has both!

GJ

[Taro Toporific]

I would whine too if I was paying almost 20% of the organization's costs and be referred to as an ennemy.

The old farthead Willy Safire of the New York Times touches the topic of the inequity of UN Security Council for Japan in this way:

Chirac had made a deal with the U.S. last fall: we agreed to postpone the invasion of Iraq until after U.N. inspectors had been jerked around long enough to satisfy the world street's opinion, and in return France would not demand a second U.N. resolution before allied forces overthrew Saddam.
...
No wonder the idle French threat to veto a resolution --- which Chirac knows will not be offered -- reminds populous and powerful nations like India and Japan of the inequity of mid-sized France having the veto power.
...
The Iraq issue is not war vs. peace. It is collective security vs. every nation for itself.
--'Bad Herr Dye' Wm. Safire, NYT

[Kurofune]

I can understand Japan wanting to pay the same as other countries. The description of them being a former enemy, however, is accurate. Getting in bed with Hitler was no small matter.