JAPAN-UNITED NATIONSDr. Machya A. Dewi, M.Si.Machdewi@Yahoo.com

HistoryJoined the UN in 1956.In the late 1950s, Japan participated actively in the social and economic activities of the UN's various specialized agencies and other international organizations concerned with social, cultural, and economic improvement. During the 1970s, as it attained the status of an economic superpower, Japan was called on to play an increasingly large role in the UN.

As Japan's role increased and its contributions to UN socioeconomic development activities grew, many Japanese began to ask whether their country was being given an international position of responsibility commensurate with its economic power. There was even some sentiment, expressed as early as 1973, that Japan should be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China.

By 1990 Japan's international cooperation efforts had reached a new level of involvement and activism. Japan contributed about 11 percent of the regular UN budget, second only to the United States, which contributed 25 percent. Japan was particularly active in UN peacekeeping activities and in 1989, for the first time, sent officials to observe and participate in UN peacekeeping efforts (in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Namibia).

Japan sent a small team to observe the February 1990 elections in Nicaragua. In 1992-93 Japan led UN supervision of the peace process and elections in Cambodia, providing approximately 2,000 people, which included members of the SDF. In addition to its UN activities and its participation in Asian regional groupings, such as the Colombo Plan and the Asian Development Bank, Japan is also involved, beginning in the 1950s, in worldwide economic groupings largely made up of, or dominated by, the industrialized nations of Western Europe and North America.

In 1952 Japan became a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and of the World Bank, where it played an increasingly important role. In 1955, it joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1966 Japan was admitted to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which brought it into what was essentially a club of leading industrialized nations.Japan has participated actively since 1975 in the annual summit meetings of the seven largest capitalist countries, the Group of Seven, or G8, since Russia joined after the end of the Cold War.

The Permanent SeatBy 1992, Germany and Japan had become the second and third largest contributor to the United Nations and started to demand a permanent seat. Also Brazil (fifth largest country in terms of territory) and India (second largest country in terms of population) as the most powerful countries within their regional groups and key players within their regions saw themselves with a permanent seat. This group of four countries formed an interest group later known as the G4.

On the other hand their regional rivals were opposed to the G4 becoming permanent members with a veto power. They favored the expansion of the non-permanent category of seats with members to be elected on a regional basis. Italy, Spain, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Pakistan started to form an interest group, known as the Coffee Club and later Uniting for Consensus.

Simultaneously, the African Group started to demand two permanent seats for themselves, on the basis of historical injustices and the fact that a large part of the Councils agenda is concentrated on the continent. Those two seats would be permanent African seats, that rotate between African countries chosen by the African group.

The existing permanent members, each holding the right of veto on Security Council reform, announced their positions reluctantly. The United States supported the permanent membership of Japan and India and a small number of additional non-permanent members. The United Kingdom and France essentially supported the G4 position, with the expansion of permanent and non-permanent members and the accession of German, Brazil, India and Japan to permanent member status, as well as an increase the presence by African countries on the Council.

China supported the stronger representation of developing countries, voicing support for the Republic of India.Russia, India's long time friend and ally has also endorsed the fast growing power's candidature to assume a seat of a permanent member on the Security Council.

Japans PositionJapan is the second largest contributor to the UN's regular budget.Its payments had surpassed the sum of those of the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia combined for nearly two decades before 2010. Japan has been one of the largest Official Development Assistance donor countries. Thus, Japan, along with India, are considered the most likely candidate for two of the new permanent seats.

China has stated that it was ready to support India's move for a permanent seat on the UNSC if India did not associate its bid with Japan.This may be contrary to the Indian stand since Japan and India are both members of the G4 and support each other's candidature.

United States unambiguously supports a permanent seat for Japan on the United Nations Security Council. Some other Asian nations have expressed support for Japan's application, including Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The other G4 countries, Germany, Brazil, and India, who are also bidding for Security Council seats, along with France and the United Kingdom, also back Japan's bid. Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu support Japan since Japan agreed to increase financial aid to the region, even though some of these countries are very concerned with Japanese whaling in the region.

Road to Security CouncilReformIn 1993, the Open-ended Working Group on Security Council Reform (OEWG) was established. In 2005, the G4 countries (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan) and other groups made proposals for Security Council reform, but none of these proposals was acted upon.

Since February 2009, momentum has been regainedthrough the intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform in the UN General Assembly, where majority of the Member States expressed the need for reform through its many rounds of negotiation.