Opinion

Japanese envoy’s wife speaks on women’s role

October 19, 2005 | 12:00am

As keynote speaker at the pearl anniversary of the Phil-Japan Ladies Association, Mme. Noriko Yamazaki, wife of Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki, surprised everyone with her fluent English. She studied English Literature at Tokyo’s Sacred Heart College, teaching English there later. Herewith is her speech:

Magandang gabi po sa inyong lahat.

Good evening and congratulations for the Pearl Jubilee of the Philippines-Japan Ladies Association!

I feel very honored and privileged to speak in front of you all. Tonight, three kinds of pearls are shining together in this hall, first, the beautiful South Sea pearls some of you are wearing; second, the pearls symbolizing purity in everyone’s heart, and third, the pearls commemorating your 30 years. I can well appreciate that for the long-standing members, 30 years must feel both long and short, but nevertheless very fulfilling.

Let me thank this Association for helping the Charity Japanese Merienda organized by our Embassy wives for Bahay Maria to be a success.

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War II. There have been many anniversary ceremonies which my husband as Ambassador of Japan, has been attending, specially Bataan Day and the surrender of General Yamashita in Kiangan and Baguio. My husband was also given the opportunity to deliver a speech and to lay a wreath of flowers to pay respects to all the Filipinos killed or hurt by the atrocious conduct of the Japanese military. We all can never deny the facts of the past and must learn from them. I am happy to note the reconciliatory and fair attitude of the Filipinos to appreciate us, Japanese, as we are now, and to take a future-orientated outlook with a view to deepening the relations between our two countries.

I want to reiterate my gratitude to the members of the Association, both Filipinos and Japanese, for your tireless efforts to deepen the mutual understanding between our two peoples. What strikes a Japanese newcomer to your country is that Japanese traditions such as Ikebana, Bonsai, Tea Ceremony, and Japanese health cuisine, which all seek harmony with nature, are highly appreciated and practiced here. This has definitely contributed to the mutual understanding between our two countries.

I am the wife of an Ambassador, but today I don’t have the intention of making a foreign policy speech, which my husband is paid his salary to do. My role here is to show what my husband is not able to do: to present one woman’s view of two aspects of present-day Japan.

The first aspect is related to the recent Aichi Exposition’s theme, nature’s wisdom. Japan’s present image is that it excels in preserving harmony with nature, with its beautiful landscapes and spot-clean cities, and that its advanced technology is well-applied in many areas.

However, during the ’60s and ’70s, nature was sacrificed for rapid higher industrialization, and pollution was prevalent. After conscientious and often painful efforts, the environment has improved, especially over the past 20 years. And most recently, as exemplified by the Aichi Expo theme harmony with nature, by resorting to nature’s wisdom, it has become one centerpiece of Japanese mentality.

A recent example is the recycling not only of everyday consumer goods such as paper and plastic bottles, but also of individual houses and even buildings. Most of the pavilions at Aichi Expo were built as temporary buildings so that they could be dismantled and recycled literally in harmony with nature. The challenge is how to re-utilize, to the extent possible, the various construction materials of houses and buildings which cannot be easily returned to the soil of the earth. The additional recycling costs four times more than destroying them and this poses a constraint in the construction of recycle-friendly houses and buildings. Here lies another challenge for Japanese technology.

Aichi Expo itself, which was the first World Exposition of the 21st century, was a great success, with 121 countries participating and drawing more than 22 million visitors.

I was really happy that the Philippine Pavilion at Aichi Expo received the Gold Prize, Nature’s Wisdom Award, for its effective utilization of natural materials which were also very recycle-friendly. In addition, two Filipino scientists were awarded the 100 Global-Eco-Tech Award for their studies in environment technologies. The Philippines is world-famous for its beautiful islands. With your creative application of various environmental technologies, your country can hopefully harmonize your economic development with your wonderful natural environment to preserve it as a common heritage of mankind. Please do not repeat Japan’s mistakes because it will be an irreversible loss for us all.

Let me next turn to present-day Japan; the women’s seemingly increasing role in society. I will first touch on statistics.

The Philippines has many women in politics, and they are very active. In the elections of Japan’s House of Representatives, women candidates from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) attracted huge mass media coverage because some of them ran in very contested constituencies where the rival candidate, a former LDP member, was expelled from the Party for opposing Prime Minister Koizumi’s postal reform bill. The results show that the LDP increased its seats by 58. About one third were won by women candidates. There is no clear-cut analysis of why this happened but imaginably behind their victory was their ostensibly fresh image.

In the Upper House, the Speaker is at present Chikage Ougi, a former lady Cabinet Minister, who originally was with the Takarazuka Performing Group and is married to a Kabuki actor.

In our government, the number of women bureaucrats is increasing, but it is not yet nearly as high as it is in the Philippines. I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the harbinger in this endeavor. A prime example is our Embassy in Manila which has nearly 65 staff members from Japan, and out of the six section heads, the Political minister and the head of the Japan Information and Cultural Center are both women: Ms. Takahashi and Ms. Taniguchi.

Out of the 69 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) in the Philippines, 26 or more than one third are women contributing to the welfare of local communities as the Japanese version of the American Peace Corps.

As for mass media, out of the seven Japanese correspondents in Manila, two leading newspapers, the Yomiuri and Asahi, whose daily circulations are about 10 million and 7 million each, have both just switched to lady correspondents.

In 1998, Dr. Setsuko Ikehata, a specialist of Philippine history, was the first Japanese to receive an honorary Ph.D. from the UP. In 2001, she became the first woman president of a Japanese co-educational national university – Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

However, the cover story of Time magazine titled "Women in Japan: The Wasted Asset" written by Japanese women correspondents, convincingly concluded that the reality of women in Japanese society is the same as decades ago, even though there are some exceptionally successful career women, many having work experience in foreign companies in Japan.

I am disappointed that this seems to be the real situation, despite the fact that about 20 years ago, the Japanese Parliament passed a law ensuring gender equality at the workplace.

I have to do much more research before concluding on this issue, especially learning from the more successful Filipino experience, so please give me more time. Perhaps by your 40th anniversary, I may complete my home-work.

In concluding my remarks, may I remind you that 2006 will mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between our two countries. I sincerely hope all members of this Association and guests can cooperate and participate in the many events as we jointly celebrate our Golden Jubilee.

Maraming Salamat Po at Mabuhay Tayong Lahat!