On Wednesday evening, 06/14, Sophia University held a symposium entitled “How can Japan, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the United Nations work together to advance their support for Afghanistan?” Featured were representatives of each of these organizations, two of whom had been flown out from Jena, Saudi Arabia for the three day long conference. Though open to students in the Tokyo area, its primary aim was to lobby the government of Japan for donations to the Afghan Humanitarian Trust Fund, a subsidiary of the IsDB. This was for me a novel example of an academic institution facilitating international bureaucracy. Themes of democratic participation, Japan’s NPO bill, sensationalist politics, women’s rights and religion were all touched upon. While this posting will not report an interview, it is a personal reflection on my time at Sophia as much as it is an attempt at something journalistic.

Tatsuo Kondo is recently retired from the UNDP, where he worked following a tenure in Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his presentation, he addressed Sophia president Yoshiaki Terumichi, who was in attendance, praising his “exceptional commitment” to Japanese cooperation in Afghanistan. He went on to claim, “Only Sophia could have done this.” In other words, only Sophia, with its international affiliation, could have brought together these diverse actors with an audience of young students and, optimistically, the ear of the Japanese state. Embodying this Sophia spirit, Professor Daisaku Higashi, organizer and moderator of the conference, was described by a fellow panelist as having made the greatest individual impact on Japanese-Afghan relations today, not least during his two years with the Japanese mission to the UN. Together with Dr. Masaru Murakami, president of the Peace Japan Medical Service (Peshawar-kai), humanitarian, academic, and political activity emerge as the three pillars of Japanese outreach to Afghanistan.

In turn, Ambassador Tariq Ali Bakheet, Special Envoy of the Secretary General of OIC to Afghanistan, and Eng. Mohammad Al-Sati, Special Advisor to the President, Islamic Development Bank, flew from Saudi Arabia for the occasion. Their presentations outlined the regional initiative for Afghanistan, particularly in terms of food insecurity, as bolstered by common cultural and geopolitical understanding. Both presenters articulated their respective organizations’ commitment to gender issues in Afghanistan as they work with the “de-facto authorities” to get girls back in the classroom, although these will likely be virtual settings. The IsDB will launch a pilot program offering online secondary schooling in the near future. In response to a student question on the challenges (implication: ethical) of collaboration between humanitarian aid organizations, inter-governmental organizations and the Taliban, the panelists made it clear that cooperation was not only essential but welcomed. “They thank us,” says Mr. Murakami, “They know they need us there.”

The Green Ground Project, as carried out by Peace Japan Medical Services (PMS, Peshawar-kai in Japanese), was initiated by Tetsuo Nakamura in the early 2000s. A physician by profession, Dr. Nakamura self-studied in civil engineering in order to target what he believed to be the true cause of malnourishment and instability in Afghanistan: a dearth of water for farming. Using Japanese techniques, the team was able to redirect water from the Kunar River into populous valleys. In his presentation, Dr. Murakami included astounding before and after images of scorched earth returned to lush ecosystem. Dr. Nakamura is often quoted for famously saying that the Afghan people would benefit more from “one proper irrigation system than [from] 100 doctors.”

All speakers persistently emphasized a shift from humanitarian aid, which risks becoming self-aggrandizing and paternalistic, to local development. As embodied in Dr. Nakamura’s work, the development approach prizes partnership and sustainable education over gift-giving. It sees self-reliance as the way forward for countries and communities in crisis. Thus, PMS’s weir building projects have involved local farmers in planning and labor, digging the inlet, overseeing worksites, planting trees and coordinating with municipal governments over permitting, transportation and energy. Likewise, the OIC prefers to deal in micro-loans to small business start-ups than in lump-sum donations, either to individuals or non-profit organizations. 70% of Afghanistan’s population lives is spread across vast rural areas reminds Eng. Al-Sati. Including remote Afghans in outreach programs requires vast logistical networks unsustainable without partnership between various actors, Japanese NPOs and the IsDB, for example. In the face of crisis and fragility, messages an IsDB promotional video, resilience through partnership is critical.

Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021, Japan, alongside many liberal democracies, instituted sanctions against Afghanistan. Done in the name of the protection of human rights, these sanctions are having the adverse effect, says Professor Higashi, of paralyzing Afghan financial institutions, thus preventing ordinary Afghans access to currency with which they might buy food and other necessities. Within Japan itself, controversy rings both sanctions and foreign aid policy. One student from the audience asked the panel about the role of the Japanese public in the day’s symposium, particularly given Japanese resistance to non-profit spending. He asked specifically for a reply to the popular criticism that, given the weak Japanese economy, the government had nothing to spare overseas. Dr. Murakami answered unreservedly with what he believes “Dr. Nakamura would have said:” that it is human nature to offer what we have, however little, to someone who evidently needs it, believing there will be enough for our own needs in the next moment, and that “people are worth loving.” Representatives from OIC and IsDB answered somewhat more concretely. Peace and stability, Eng. Al-Sati argues, are worth protecting, whatever the cost. Japan’s reliance on the Middle Eastern oil supply, adds Professor Higashi, should be motivation enough.

Dr. Nakamura died in 2019 as the target of a suspected assassination by a Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan commander. Japan, says Sophia Chancellor Sari Augustine, should be more proud of a person like Dr. Nakamura, “who was assassinated as a martyr.” Rather than another form of hero worship, Augustine sees his life as “a call to conscious action,” particularly for Japanese youth. The reality of globalization must then be an extension of our concerns, beyond neighborhood and national borders, that may then “lead to enhancing human life in a global way.”

At this point, the act of prioritizing development in self-sustaining partnership, phasing out traditional forms of direct aid, all while maintaining tenable relations with the de-facto Taliban government seems a feat. If development is in fact an institutional process, as it appears to be, there may even be a paradox in the promotion of apolitical regional development. Nonetheless, Japan, responding to the lobbying of inter-governmental bodies and non-profit organizations, asserts its support for peace in the Middle East, and Sophia, through Professor Higashi, fulfills its role by asking the Japanese government to go further.