Archives - Jean Chrétien

Meiji University

The honour you have granted me today is matched only by the warmth of the welcome I have received in your great country.

I accept it proudly, for myself, and on behalf of my government and all the people of Canada.

I accept it as a testament to the close and enduring relationship between our two countries.

Canada, like Japan, is a Pacific nation.

We live in a world where knowledge is opening doors of friendship and peaceful coexistence. A world where the brain power of nations is the key to economic growth, prosperity and social progress.

There could be no better place to celebrate our partnership than at one of the most prestigious seats of learning in all Japan.

I am particularly pleased that Meiji University has a very successful Canadian Studies program.

Since 1989, your Centre for International Programs has worked closely with the Canadian Embassy to bring prominent Canadian scholars here for lectures and seminars.

The relationships this university has forged with Canadian institutions of higher learning -- such as the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta and York University -- are invaluable to both Japanese and Canadian students.

There are many other examples of how the people of our two countries are learning more about each other.

Canadian and Japanese scientists are coming together for mutual benefit under such programs as the Japanese STA Fellowships and our Japan Science and Technology Fund.

In the past decade, more than 3,000 young Canadians have come to Japan as English teachers in your schools. Since 1987, close to 10,000 young Canadians and 25,000 young Japanese have participated in the Working Holiday Program that allows young people to work while they travel.

Thousands more Canadians have come here as tourists, and last summer in Toronto, more than half-a-million Canadians visited the largest exhibit of contemporary Japanese art, theatre and dance ever assembled in North America.

You are also visiting my country in record numbers. Over the past decade, five million Japanese people have come to Canada as tourists.

One of the things you will find when you get there is that Canada is a land of immigrants. Over the years, our two founding cultures, the English and the French, have been joined and enriched by millions of people from every corner of the globe -- including Japan.

Sixty years ago, for example, a young man named Umezuki left for Canada. Today, his granddaughter represents Canada at our Embassy here in Tokyo.

Another young man, Nakamura, left for Canada over forty years ago. He became a Kendo Master. His skills are recognized in Canada and Japan. Today, he lives in Tokyo and practises Kendo with Prime Minister Hashimoto. His daughter is also an officer at our Embassy.

Our Embassy itself was designed by a distinguished Canadian of Japanese origin, Raymond Moriyama. His beautiful creation in Akasaka combines Japanese and Canadian architectural traditions. It stands as a fitting symbol of the close relationship between our two countries.

We also have a very close business and trade relationship. Japan is our second largest trading partner after the United States.

Over the past three years, our exports to you have grown in value by 61%. Your exports to us have also increased dramatically. Indeed, our trade relationship with Japan is a model of the relations we want to have with our trade partners across the Pacific.

Both our countries want to see greater international cooperation to support the free flow of goods and services across all borders.

That is why we continue to work in partnership with Japan in such organizations as the G-7, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the forum for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

We believe that freer trade among all nations is the best assurance that we will all share economic growth. And we share with Japan the goal of bringing the entire world community into a single rules-based economic system because it will mean greater prosperity for all.

The combined expertise of Canadian and Japanese private sector companies represents a formidable commercial presence. The growing markets of Asia have enormous potential for growth.

I am happy to tell you that one result of my visit here is that our two governments have agreed to look for ways to help our private sector companies cooperate more fully to take advantage of opportunities in these and other markets.

We can also learn a great deal from each other by sharing experiences in areas such as improving the effectiveness of our own domestic fiscal policies.

We also welcome the chance to learn from you how you have built a fair and just society where education is honoured and innovation is rewarded. And how you have built one of the strongest economies in the world based on exports that set world standards for quality and technical innovation.

I think it is important for people in all the countries of the world to understand that when their leaders meet in the various international bodies I have just mentioned, we discuss more than dry statistics about trade and capital flows. We talk about people.

I applaud the "Initiative for a Caring World" that Prime Minister Hashimoto presented at the G-7 Summit in Lyon this past June.

His proposal deals with some of the most important challenges facing all our governments. That is, how to ensure that our social security, health and pension systems are able to provide for a rapidly aging population.

In Canada, we share that concern. We are working to make sure that our pension system will continue to be self-sustaining into the next century as our population grows older.

One of the most important areas of common concern is the protection of our environment. Since the Rio Summit, Canada and Japan have worked closely on environmental issues.

The environmental diplomacy practised by Japan is second to none. It is a factor recognized by Canada, and it is the inspiration behind our growing bilateral relationship on environmental issues. A good example of our joint effort is the international meeting on model forests, jointly sponsored by Canada and Japan, which was held last week on the island of Shikoku.

We also look forward to a continuing dialogue with Japan on our common concern for the security of people around the world.

Security for the 21st century means preserving the economic well-being of our citizens. It means protecting our common global environment. It means ensuring that those who have been left behind in global economic development have a chance to catch up.

The people of Japan can take great pride in the leadership that your country is demonstrating on the international stage. Japan is now the largest contributor to the UN, and the largest donor nation in terms of foreign aid. It has become one of the major forces for reform and improvement of the UN and one of the major forces for the improvement of conditions in developing countries.

These are goals that Canada shares.

Our country is perhaps best known in Japan -- and indeed around the world -- for its role as a peacekeeper.

Over the past fifty years, more than 100,000 Canadian service men and women have served in missions overseas.

Canada has participated in over 35 peacekeeping missions around the world.

Our peacekeeping efforts over the years have been successful. They have saved lives and helped rebuild fragile countries.

It is a role we are happy to share with others. Earlier this year, for example, a contingent of Japanese peacekeepers began working with a Canadian logistics group in the Golan Heights. This week, Canada is hosting a seminar of many nations to talk about the future of peacekeeping and its central importance in helping to defuse regional conflicts.

We are committed to moving the international agenda for peace to an even higher level.

For some years now, faced with civil war and ethnic strife in the Balkans, in the former Soviet Union and in Africa, more and more voices in the international community have called for greater efforts to be devoted to conflict prevention and peacekeeping.

We need to move from talk to action to confront these challenges.

There is an urgent need to develop means to bring aid to peoples caught in zones of conflict where it is not safe for humanitarian organizations to function. This is particularly true when starvation and disease threaten civilian populations caught in the crossfire.

We have an obligation as responsible world citizens to draw lessons from the situation in the Great Lakes area of Africa which has lurched from predictable crisis to predictable crisis over the past several years with enormous loss of lives and human suffering.

Better mechanisms of conflict prevention and a stronger will on the part of the international community to intervene in an area where few national interests are at stake might well have headed off these disasters.

Canada took the lead less than two weeks ago in organizing an ad hoc coalition of willing countries to come to the aid of the refugees caught in eastern Zaire.

This in large part precipitated the chain of events allowing the departure of a river of humanity from eastern Zaire into Rwanda.

This crisis is not yet over. We remain committed to working with the international community including countries such as Japan to take the steps necessary to ensure that the humanitarian agencies have the tools required to help the refugees in that part of Africa.

We must also dedicate ourselves to find better ways of ensuring that ad hoc solutions do not have to be relied upon in the future.

Better ways must be found to ensure that the military resources of the international community can be mobilized to alleviate the suffering of civilians in zones of conflict and instability.

I want to express my appreciation to Meiji University for giving me the opportunity to make this appeal at a time when the plight of the people of eastern Zaire is such a great concern to the people of our respective countries.

In conclusion, I want to thank you again for giving me this great honour, and for giving me the opportunity to share with you some of the hopes that Canada has, as we approach the 21st century.

Thank you very much.