Madam Chair,

A “gender-equal society" is a peaceful place in which both women and men, as equal members, have the opportunity to exercise their individuality and capacity in full. A “gender-equal society" is also a place in which not only women, who account for half of 63 hundred million people in the world, but also men could achieve their well-being. Therefore, Japan consider that the themes of the forty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which focus on the role of men and boys in gender equality and women's role for peace-building, are very timely and appropriate.

Madam Chair,

Now I would like to touch upon the first theme of the Commission: “ The role of men and boys in achieving gender equality."

Stereotyped gender roles, which is assumed that men should work outside the home while women remain at home doing housekeeping and child-rearing, seem to still persist in the world including Japan. Due to these stereotypes, not only women but men as well are placed in a difficult situation where they are expected to work for very long hours and give up quality time they could otherwise spend with their families. A “gender-equal society" is a society where both women and men can reconcile work and family life and attain full self-realization regardless of their gender. We believe that the efforts towards creating such a society will lead to true gender equality.

To raise awareness of men and boys is indispensable for the realization of a “gender-equal society." According to the public survey conducted by the Cabinet Office of Japan, forty-seven percent of Japanese interviewees opposed the stereotyped gender roles. Although this number is 9.2 percent higher than it was five years ago, we believe that there is still a lot to be done in order to correct these stereotypes and to promote gender equality based on respect for human rights.

Japan is attempting to improve its educational system in order to promote gender equality in every sphere of society, in schools, home, and the community. In school education, education with emphasis on family and society is given great importance accords with the level of each child's development. For example, there is a class of home economics in a week at every elementary and junior-high school in Japan, and boys as well as girls need to attend the classes. Career guidance to older students is also promoted in order to assist them in learning the ability and attitude to choose their life course by their will and ability.

In social education, the Japanese Government provides assistance to enable women and men to participate in all kinds of social activities, especially for men to participate in child-rearing, housekeeping, education, nursing, and community activities together with women. We are also conducting learning programs to raise the awareness of parents so that both mothers and fathers cooperate together and fathers in particular play more active part in the education of their children.

The Government of Japan makes efforts to develop an employment environment where working women can display their ability fully without facing any sex discrimination and to realize real gender equality in the workplace. However, there still is a de facto gap between male and female workers based on still existing stereotyped perceptions of gender roles.

To dissolve the gap, the Government of Japan is encouraging companies to take “positive action" by implementing the benchmark project which helps a company to measures its working environment for female workers by comparing with that of other companies in the same industry, and by issuing a booklet about good example of positive actions taken by actual companies.

In response, there is a change in companies' attitudes recently, as we can see from the remarks of the presidents of major private companies, such as "Taking positive action is beneficial for the company", "It makes a company aggressive to develop an employment environment in which women can highly contribute."

At the same time, the Japanese Government is committed to ensuring that thirty percent of leadership positions in all spheres of society be occupied by women by 2020.

In Japan, since the birth rate is rapidly declining, it is crucial to take measures of which both women and men can rear their child cooperatively. Therefore, the Government of Japan determined a policy “Immediate Action Plan to Support the Development of the Next-generation" in last March and has been promoting various actions such as conversion of working patterns including those of men to shorter their working hours, and setting up a target percentage for child-care leave to urge men to take their leave. Furthermore, the law of which obliges the local governments and major private firms to create their action plan for the development of the next-generation passed the National Diet in last July. Japan determines to continue its focused and planned effort in this area until 2015.

There are still numerous challenges to be confronted in bringing change to the deep-rooted stereotyped gender-roles, to setting up a women-friendly working environment, and to responding to the decreasing number of children in our country. Japan renews its commitment to continuing to further implement its current policies.

Madam Chair,

Now let me turn to the second theme: “Women's equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building." Japan has been working on the issue of conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building from a viewpoint of how Japan can help countries requiring assistance from international society. Japan determines to continue its efforts, in the area of education for empowerment of women in/after conflict for example, in cooperation with the United Nations, international organizations, other countries and NGOs.

Still fresh in our memory is the excitement we felt when Resolution 1325 was adopted by the Security Council on October 31, 2000. Japan fully supports the resolution and is making efforts towards its implementation.

“Human security" is a concept Japan has been promoting as one of the pillars of its foreign policy and the protection of women under armed conflicts is regarded as one of the most important issues in human security. In “Human Security Now," the report of the Commission on Human Security submitted to the Secretary-General in May 2003, “the promotion of women's participation" is included under the issue of protection and empowerment of civilians under armed conflict. Moreover Japan's revised Official Development Assistance (ODA) Charter which was approved by the Cabinet last August lays out the four pillars of priority issues on our assistance, one of which is peace- building. It also states that a gender equality perspective is particularly important in the formulation and implementation of aid policy and should always be taken into consideration. Japan recognizes the empowerment of women as indispensable for peace, security and national-building and makes vigorous contributions to the realization of the empowerment of women through its bilateral assistance, such as collaboration with NGOs, dispatching experts and accepting trainees, and its partnerships with international organizations such as the Trust Fund for Human Security and UNIFEM.

On this opportunity, Japan would like to show its respect to the co-chairs of the Commission on Human Security, Mrs. Sadako Ogata, the former United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees and the present president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Mr. Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize laureate and a professor of Cambridge University, Dr. Frene GINWALA, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, and Ms. Sonia PICADO, President of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights for their efforts to disseminate the concept of “Human Security Now," which English version is translated to Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese. Japan believes that it stirs up a driving force to realize empowerment and ownership of women in the world.

Our assistance to Afghanistan is particularly noteworthy. In January 2002, Japan announced its reconstruction assistance plan at the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan, which included “the advancement of the status of women and their participation in nation-building" as one of its focal points. Clearly, Japan places great emphasis on women's participation in the post-war peace processes. Under the Taliban regime, women were deprived of freedom. Due to years of war, women became refugees, internally displaced persons and widows, and girls became orphans. Since one aspect of reconstruction is to guarantee respect for human beings and civil rights as well as guarantee the social infrastructure, peace building without women's active participation is unimaginable. In this context, Japan would like to heartily congratulate the Afghan people who succeed in drafting a new constitution of which clearly mentioned women's rights in it. The assistance from international community including Japan bears fruits. We consider that this sets a good example for the advancement of the status of women through democratization and the peace-building process.

Japan is actively involved in providing assistance to Afghan women by conducting projects such as dispatching gender experts to the Ministry of Women Affairs and receiving trainees from them, reconstructing girls' schools, establishing women's community centers through NGOs, and assisting refugees and displaced women through the Human Security Fund.

Japan reaffirms its commitment to follow up Security Council Resolution 1325 and ensure women's equal participation in conflict prevention, management and conflict resolution, and post-conflict peace-building.

To conclude, Madam Chair, Japan will promote and implement policies enhancing the status of women and achieving gender equality both within and outside our nation through close partnership with international organizations and civil society including NGOs.

I thank you, Madam Chair.