5. Publications & Activities

GPAJ Member, Arbenita Sopaj visited Tokyo from Kobe University this week. Arbenita has been an active member of GPAJ as one of the moderators for the zoom conference on “The Impact of the UN Intervention on Contemporary Kosovo” featuring Ambassador Leon Malazogu and others. She held an informal lunch with Sukehiro Hasegawa, President of GPAJ, Ken Inoue, Vice President of GPAJ, Elizabeth Gamarra, member of the GPAJ Board.

In his article just published by China Daily on September 23, Director of the Research Center for United Nations and International Organizations of Fudan University, Professor Zhang Guihong, who is member of the Global Peacebuilding Association of Japan, recognizes the UN has a unique advantage in promoting universal values as well as global norms and ethics. Please click here for his full article.

GPAJ Vice President Mio Sato will be appointed as IOM Office Director in Pakistan next month, and her successor, GPAJ Vice President Kumagai, organized a farewell lunch. It was most enjoyable to have eight members get together at the restaurant for the first time in a long time and talk to each other directly. Yumiko Kaneko, a UNDP staff in the Philippines and a GPAJ member, joined us. From right: Ken Inoue, Vice President of GPAJ, Mio Sato, Director of IOM, Takaaki Mizuno, Professor of Kanda University of International Studies, Keiichi Tanabe, Professor of Tokai University, Yumiko Kaneko, UNDP staff, Sukehiro Hasegawa, GPAJ President, and Naoko Kumagai, Vice President and Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.

Grand Master Sen Zenshu held a demonstration tea ceremony and explained its significance including the basic philosophy of Sado based on its principle of four forms: “Wa, Kei, Sei, Jyaku”. He explained the philosophy developed by the founder of the way of tea, or chado, SEN no RIKYU (1522-91), who perfected the style of chanoyu based on the wabi aesthetic and elevated chanoyu into the way of tea aimed at purifying the atmosphere to harmonize the relationship between the host and guest.

The event was hosted by President Genshitsu Sen, Urasenke Grand Master of Japanese Tea School, and participated by Vice President Yasushi AKASHI, Former UN Under-Secretary-General, Board Director Momoyo ISE, Executive Director for Academic Exchange Sukehiro Hasegawa, and Board Member and Vice President of Sophia University Miki SUGIMURA of UN Association of Japan. Also participated are Deputy Director-General Wang Ying and Program Officer You Bai Shun of UN Association of China; and Acting President and Ambassador Ho-Jin Lee, and three Vice Presidents of UN Association of the Republic of Korea, Former Ambassador to the Netherlands Jong-moo Choi, Vice, President of the Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy Seo-Hang Lee and Professor Heung-soon Park, Former President of the Korean Academic Council on the United Nations and Member of the Board of Academic Council on the UN System (ACUNS).

UN Association of Japan held Model UN sessions and preparatory lectures and discussions conducted by Vice President Yasushi Akashi, Professors Akio Takahara of University of Tokyo, Takaaki Mizuno of Kanda University, Miki Sugimura of Sophia University and Hiroko Akizuki of Asia University. Model UN sessions were organized by students from the Tokyo International University (Reported by Moe Hino).

Following the 9-day training and meetings organized by the Center for UN Constitutional Research (CUNCR) in Brussels on the 19th and 20th of July, young activists held the conferences from the 22nd to the 26th first in Corfu and then in Epirus where parliamentarians and academics joined young activists in adopting the “Declaration of Epirus.”