The report of the high-level panel on U.N. reforms is doubly gratifying for Japan. First, it endorses Japan's candidacy for permanent membership on the U.N. Security Council. And second, it endorses the concept of human security, which has underpinned Japan's foreign policy, as a template for U.N. policies.

This marks a good time, therefore, to take stock of the vital support given by Japan to the U.N. system overall, and to renew Japan's commitment to maintaining and even strengthening these as a tangible demonstration of its good international citizenship.

The United Nations, being a product of the human imagination and efforts, reflects the imperfections of human fallibility. But the world would have been a worse place without the existence of the United Nations for the last 60 years, more conflict-riven, with a diminished sense of international solidarity and community. And the United Nations in turn would have been less effective and efficacious for the past 50 years without the significant support politically and materially of Japan.

The United Nations has always been a meeting place of power and idealism, pragmatism and principles, normative advancement and coercive enforcement. Its original great normative mandate was the maintenance of international peace and security. With the dramatic influx of new members under the impact of decolonization, most of whom were more interested in national development than in the global Cold War, the United Nations soon acquired development as its second great normative mandate.

Human security is the conceptual rod that connects the two-development and security-to each other at both intellectual and policy levels. It is not surprising, therefore, that it first arose from within the U.N. system.

Within this overarching framework, Japan has been among the most notable in supporting the development leg of human security, and strengthening the ideational and normative base of the United Nations through advocacy and financial support. The United Nations is the principal forum where the international community comes together, and active and intensive involvement in U.N. activities has been the most significant contribution of Japan to the international community, highly appreciated both by U.N. agencies and the member states.

Next year marks the United Nations' 60th birthday. Coming as it does after the 50th anniversary of Japan's official development assistance in 2004, it is an opportune moment in which to reflect on the twin contributions to the United Nations through peace diplomacy, as in Cambodia in the early 1990s and in Sri Lanka today, and through ODA. The focus on human security in Japan's foreign policy consolidates the two U.N. mandates at the level of practical implementation.

Perhaps the most tangible example of the link is the much-valued assistance to humanitarian actors. Some U.N. agencies could profit from Japan's experience in bridging the gap between peace and development through a focus on humanitarian action.

Interestingly and importantly, this is reinforced by strengthening the capacity of Japanese NGOs to engage in international humanitarian activity. The U.N. system works in active partnership with NGO actors in the humanitarian field all around the world, often providing technical and administrative support to them. Involving Japanese humanitarian NGOs in the work of U.N. agencies has built their experience, expertise and management capacity to work alongside other international NGOs in the field, often in very difficult and dangerous environments. Many of the key U.N. agencies have offices in Japan, and are ready and able to assist young, enthusiastic, dedicated and competent Japanese to get invaluable on-the-job training.

The recommendation that Japan and India join China as Asia's permanent members on the U.N. Security Council is a recognition of the reality, acknowledged almost unanimously, that these countries must accept the burdens of leadership in the continent that has more than half the world's total population. This can be done most effectively and efficiently in partnership with U.N. agencies throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

The capacity of many U.N. agencies to implement the U.N. mandates on peace and development-to enhance human security-will be damaged if the process of U.N. reform fails to reaffirm their role in the field and providing them with the necessary resources to carry on their activities.

The U.N. Secretariat is funded through compulsory assessed contributions from member states. By contrast, many U.N. agencies depend on voluntary contributions to finance their core work. It is worth emphasizing that the high-level panel's report has just reinforced voluntary contributions as one of the key criteria for Security Council permanent membership.

The voluntarily funded U.N. agencies can complement, reinforce and sometimes even substitute for national action. For example, Japan is strongly supportive of Africa's development through the TICAD and NEPAD processes. But Japan's embassy coverage of Africa is limited. U.N. agencies have a much more active and intensive presence across the continent. U.N. agencies often organize programs focusing on Africa and thus serve to bridge the awareness gap for the Japanese public on the needs of Africa and the Japanese government's many contributions to meet these needs.

Another area in which Japan has traditionally been very active is refugee assistance, not the least because of the wonderful work and prominent profile of Sadako Ogata as the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. A funding shortfall could delay the delivery of urgent assistance to the most vulnerable of the refugee population, and in Africa slow down the repatriation and reintegration of refugees and displaced populations. In the worst case, the U.N. field presence required for refugee protection may have to be scaled down substantially.

Thus as the world gets ready to give long overdue recognition to Japan, it becomes even more critical that Japan continue its invaluable and irreplaceable support to the many agencies based and located here as Japan's window to the international community.

The author is rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo. He contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun.(IHT/Asahi: December 24,2004)