New Year's Message from Mr. Seishiro Eto, President

We wish you a Happy New Year! We heartily hope that joy and happiness be brought to you this year too. The worldwide wish that is ‘may the 21st century be full of peace and hope’ has not been realized yet. The 21st century started with the acts of terrorism, the bombings and anthrax attacks which have shaken the world. Every time we see or hear the news about the victims of these attacks, refugees and internal displaced people suffering in the extreme weather conditions and lack of food, our heart sinks deeply.

According to UNHCR, at present there are 12,100,000 refugees, and on top of that 21,100,000 people of concern including internal displaced people. This is equivalent of 1 in 284 people when compared with the whole world population. We tend to think of overseas activities when we say ‘refugee assistance’, but since the start of the refugee recognition system in Japan in 1982, there have been 2,179 applicants for refugee status out of whom 265 have been recognized (as of December 2000).

ISSJ is a social welfare agency approved by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor, handling international welfare case works. We also function as the Japan branch for International Social Service with the headquarters in Geneva, and the global network behind it. Therefore, our roles would be an even more important one. Also with the rapid changes to globalization, there are problems concerning children with no nationalities and those who are not registered, and also the problems that foreign women face. Increase in the number of international marriages leads to more cases in which foreigners in Japan are forced to give birth and bring their child up in unstable living and medical environments.

Throughout this year, we shall set our aims to provide ‘caring hand beyond the boundaries’ bearing the preciousness of human lives in mind, to help improve the international child welfare and family services. All of us, as the committee and staff members, are committed to do our best and we would like to take the liberty of asking you for your cooperation and support for this year, too.

 

 

New Year's Message from Mrs. Yaeko Otsuki, General Director

We wish you a Happy New Year! We would like to send my sincere gratitude to all of you for your unchanging support, kindness you gave us last year. We live in the year 2002 already, and every year we start our work thinking to ourselves that this year we will do our best. At the beginning of this year we are determined to do so all the same. However, when we think of those terrible incidents of last year starting with disastrous terrorists attacks to us, happiness seems to be disappearing from the world and we feel much anxiety.

We see various human dramas around us concerning refugees and foreigners living in Japan, people who are married the foreigners, issues raised through adoptions and overstays. All of us as the staff of ISSJ will put our heart into the work in the hope that we will be able to give as much ‘little happiness’ as possible, and we would like to ask you for your support for ISSJ. Thank you very much.