Introduction: Welcome to SPF World Views, a podcast that seeks out new perspectives on the global topics of today and insights into the conversations of tomorrow. This program will feature interviews with our experts here in Japan, as well as our partners around the world on a range of topics related to the work we do here at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, or what we call SPF.
But before we dive into these conversations, we thought we should take a moment to consider who we are here at the foundation and how we fit into this global conversation. For the inaugural episode of this new podcast, I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Atsushi Sunami, president of SPF. He first joined the foundation as the president of our Ocean Policy Research Institute and was later appointed president of SPF itself in June 2020, just months after the outbreak of COVID-19. Since then, he's overseen the foundation as we navigated the challenges of continuing our work in the midst of a pandemic. We're excited to welcome him as the first ever guest. Dr. Sunami, thank you very much for joining us at SPF World Views.
Dr. Sunami: Thank you.
Recently, Japan has had quite a full agenda and has been active on the international stage, having just concluded the G7 summit in Hiroshima, and the long awaited post-COVID era has finally arrived in Japan, with the virus being downgraded earlier in May. At the same time, we're facing a world filled with continuing challenges from the fallout from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, threats to the environment, tensions in East Asia, and the list goes on. From your position, what do you see as the primary challenges facing Japan, the region and by extension, the world?
Dr. Sunami: When we were coming out of COVID, my expectation was to see the world more unified in facing common challenges, and we’d see more collaboration, and that would be the one of the top priorities of everyone. But unfortunately, that's not the case today.
The challenges that I see are issues of more division, more conflict, less inclusion. More people are feeling that they are left behind, not being noticed by the global community. I think that is the kind of real challenge that we're facing now.
Looking to that as a central challenge, SPF itself, we are a private organization, so we operate in a different arena than, say, a government or a state or international organizations. What do you see as a role for these private organizations in confronting these increasing divisions that you're seeing at this time?
Dr. Sunami: When I assumed the presidency of this foundation, I thought to myself, what is the mission not only for the foundation, but what is the mission for me as being the president. The capacity of the organization is incomparable with other types of organizations that we see, being financially more independent, the unique position that we play, being in part of Asia but also being part of the global community.
Our foundation, whatever we do in our programs and activities, one thing we should and should always be is a foundation that works with people, no matter what religion or what nationality or what ethnic background or sex or any of these attributes of what we call it that distinguishes one particular individual from the other, but as a human being.
Our foundation should start from that view that we are the foundation for the people, regardless of where they are. I think that distinguishes what the state actors or international organizations or one particular sort of mission-focused international NGOs, because we are not particularly focusing on one agenda, but we can take our programs or activities very broadly, tackling different issues at the same time. And we are lucky that our organization has the capacity to do so.
This reminds me of a previous conversation we had in which you mentioned that it can be quite difficult for people to understand what the foundation does because in a sense we do a little bit of everything. We do our best to encompass what SPF is as a whole by calling ourselves a Think, Do, and Innovate-Tank. As a think tank we conduct research and do those sorts of academic, analytical activities. As a do tank, we're also working with partners on the ground. But I would like to ask you to elaborate a bit on the innovate-tank aspect of this explanation.
Often when we think of innovation, our mind instantly goes to technological innovation, but in our case, it's slightly different. How would you describe the kind of innovation that you see happening at the foundation?
Dr. Sunami: What I would like to see happening in the foundation, because “innovate tank” is the motto of the foundation, is “think and act beyond convention.” Because business as usual, it took us this far, but doesn't really provide the solution that’s necessary for everybody's expectations.
All these programs that we do always require new ways of getting us there. In that sense, I expect our foundation to lead and innovate. Compared to other NGOs or state actors or international agencies, our organization is much better equipped to take any risks of different ways and try out different things. And if it works fine, if it doesn't work, then we can shift to another thing. That sort of flexibility of means and approaches that we can try and reach out to different stakeholders, different partners, a different part of the community.
When we talk about creating a peaceful, sustainable society, in a particular region that over the years that are divided with a lot of conflicts, lack of understanding, although people on the ground actually or the people in the community are trying to find a way to coexist.
The kind of work that we can bring in is by creating more opportunity for dialogue, if there is one particular group of people that are needed to be empowered in order to have a voice in the process or more opportunities to understand each other. If that's the case, we could be more innovative in trying out different approaches to find a solution for everyone. That's our mission, really.
Based on these topics that we discussed earlier, where would you like to see the foundation go in the future, and where will you yourself be focusing your energy?
Dr. Sunami: When I became the president of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the first thing I thought about was to really think of the basic human security concept, that everyone in the world, no matter where you are or the part of the world that you live in, you as a human being have a basic right for humans’ basic security. The current system fails to provide that equally to everyone. One of the ultimate missions is can we provide this sort of basic human security for everyone for decades and years to come.
Climate crisis, the ocean conditions, and everything in the environment is changing so rapidly. Natural disasters take people’s life suddenly at a global scale. Arctic is changing so fast. How are we going to address that issue? It’s not just an issue of countries surrounding the Arctic, but it’s a global issue. But who’s going to take that debate globally, particularly from Asia? That’s why we held last year an international conference on the Arctic here in Japan hosted by us.
The challenge is to be constantly innovative of our organization, to meet the people's expectations and bring up the hope to everyone in the world. That's what I think the Sasakawa Peace Foundation should be doing.
Outro: That was our conversation with Dr. Atsushi Sunami, president of SPF. Thanks for joining us for this episode of SPF World Views. We have a lot more in store, so stay tuned for future episodes. In the meantime, be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and visit our website for full transcripts of every episode. Special thanks to Dr. Sunami for being our first ever guest, and thank you for joining us at SPF World Views.