Evolution of the Notion of Human Security and Japanese Human SecurityUnderstanding(s)

Abstract

Since the publication of the Human Development Report in 1994, the concept of human security has been a topic of ongoing discussion in the international community. It has continued to evolve until the publication of the Special Human Development Report on Human Security in 2022, which was published in the post-COVID-19 period. In this study, the evolution of human security from the day the Human Development Report was published until the release of the 2022 Special Human Development Report on Human Security is analysed. The thesis begins by examining the evolution of the concept at the United Nations. Then, it focuses on Japan’s understanding of human security, which is distinguished by initiatives related to the understanding of human security. The significance of human security for Japan and the factors that prompted its adoption of the notion are studied. While analysing Japan’s endeavours in this field, the thesis critically examines how the identities attributed to Japan and the roles assigned to Japan by Japanese policymakers have influenced Japan’s understanding of human security. This is done through analysing the rhetoric of the Diplomatic Bluebooks and speeches of Japanese policymakers from 1998 on, that is the year when Japan started to pursue this understanding as a policy until the revision of the Charter for Development Cooperation in 2023. Human security was at the beginning a rhetoric maintained at the level of the Prime Minister, but later became the rhetoric of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afterwards, while it was the rhetoric of Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which administered Official Development Assistance (ODA) until the COVID-19 pandemic, today the rhetoric of “human security in the new era”, rhetoric produced by Prime Minister Kishida, predominates. The Japanese human security understanding can be described as a supporting element of its current approach to foreign policy, which has been made more visible through the concept of aid.