Special Event to Commemorate 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation - Tsukuba Conference Day 3

Heated discussions take place by researchers from around the world at the Tsukuba Conference every two years. On September 28, the final day of the Conference this year, a special event was held to commemorate 50 years of friendship and cooperation between ASEAN and Japan.

The first session was "Innovative Educational Activities for the Sustainable Development of the Future Generation: Sharing the Best Practices from the SEAMEO Region and Japan", co-organized by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). By bringing young students together from the region and introducing successful cases of transformative programs in elementary and secondary education, the session helped the participants learn more about coping with the challenges of the next generation.

The second session was "How will ASEAN and JAPAN Deal with Changes in the World Order?" and was co-hosted by the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS). The session began with a message from Mr. IIMURA Yutaka, Senior Fellow of GRIPS, followed by an hour and a half of discussion. Mr. IIMURA has served as Ambassador of Japan to Indonesia and Ambassador of Japan to France.

This was then followed by the keynote address by Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States and founder and president of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesian (FPCI), affiliated with GRIPS. Dr. Djalal stated as follows:

"The countries of the so-called Global South do not believe that the current world order reflects emerging realities. We need to create a new one. The drastic transformation of world affairs, especially the situation in Ukraine, has prompted ASEAN to reflect on its position and principles in the international community and to seek 'creative alignments.' In its relations with Japan, ASEAN has placed a great deal of trust in Japan's consistency in terms of its economic assistance for infrastructure development and non-military diplomacy since the end of World War II. Japan should further deepen cooperation with ASEAN through 'people-to-people' relations and focus on human resource development for the region. This will surely lead to the creation of leaders for the next 50 years and the building of a better regional and international order."

The main part of the second session featured a discussion among four panelists: Mr. Dino Patti, Ms. Sharon Seah Li-Lian of the Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, Prof. OBA Mie of Kanagawa University, and Assoc. Prof. NOMURA Nakao of the University of Tsukuba. The panelists discussed various aspects of how Japan and ASEAN countries should cooperate to cope with the global challenges that have been unprecedented since the end of World War II, such as Russian aggression against Ukraine.