By Mahinda Seneviratne* OSAKA, Japan | 8 September 2025 (IDN) — As the sun rose over the picturesque, volcanic mountain region of central Kyushu in Japan, four young women from Myanmar were reporting for work as house maids at a local ryokan (Japanese-style inn). They are part of the growing number of migrant workers evident […]
Reminiscences of the United Nations and Japan’s Asia Strategy
By Prof. Makoto Taniguchi*
TOKYO (IDN) – When the United States was bashing the United Nations as an ‘Useless presence’ in the 1980s, young bureaucrats of the rank of Minister-Counsellors, who were dispatched as government representatives to the UN in New York, were using a deprecating term – a “zombie” group －to describe the situation in which they found themselves.
Counsellor Mr. Sergey Lavrov of the Soviet Union, who was like a leader among his peers, was convinced that something needs to be done about the world body. Otherwise he and others will not be respected back home. So he was inspiring the group that was otherwise beginning to lose sight of a vision to strengthen the United Nations. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE
A Young Japanese Foundation Reaches Out to the World
BERLIN | MILAN (IDN) – “To safeguard the future of the planet and the right of future generations everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives. This is the great development challenge of the 21st century,” declared the Human Development Report 2011, an independent publication commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE
Japan’s Development Agency Assisting Kenya’s Fight Against TB
NAIROBI (IDN) – Catherine Nduta, 26, was diagnosed with Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in 2012, when she was a third year student at one of Kenya’s universities, where she was undertaking a civil engineering course.
“I was almost 6-month pregnant hence couldn’t start MDR-TB treatment. I was to either terminate the pregnancy for me to start medication or continue with normal TB medication until I give birth,” Nduta told a forum organized by StopTB Partnership Kenya, that attracted Kenya’s Members of Parliament (MPs).
“I finally underwent induction and my baby was removed prematurely for me to start medication. 12 months of injections and 24 months of taking 18 pills a day: life was hard,” says she, now mother of one son. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE
Japan Spreads Development Wings Across Zimbabwe
HARARE (IDN) – As the battle to attain the Sustainable Development Goals hits up across the globe, the government of Japan through its development organisation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has covered a myriad of development areas in this Southern African nation. SPANISH | GERMAN | HINDI | JAPANESE