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2009/08/20
Fujisue, Fujita meet with Youth Summit participants
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On August 20, DPJ Youth Department Director General Kenzo Fujisue and International Department Vice Director General Yukihisa Fujita met with participants in the Hello Japan 2009 Youth Summit (a total of 161 students from overseas countries, primarily Germany, and Japan) inside the House of Councillors Diet Members Office Building. The two members gave a speech to the participants before answering their questions.
The participants were divided into two groups, each addressed by one of the Diet members. Fujita talked about his own experiences during a short visit he made to Germany to study the language, and welcomed the students to Japan. He explained that the general election campaign had started two days ago in Japan, and that an historic change of government could be about to take place. He went on to explain that the DPJ had been focusing on such issues as wasteful use of taxpayers’ money, pensions, employment, an aging society with a low birthrate, and inadequacies in the medical care system, and said that such issues would be key issues during the election. The students asked questions such as “How can you ensure that the 26, 000 yen per month child allowance will really be used for the children concerned and not just spent by their parents?” and “Are you prepared to receive asylum seekers from North Korea considered the problems posed by that country and the abduction issue?” and a lively discussion followed.
Fujisue used hand-held boards to help explain the effects that the global economic crisis has had on Japan, such as employment problems and reductions in consumption, and about Japanese politics. In the discussion that followed, students asked questions regarding the DPJ’s foreign policy stance, dispatch of the SDF, and the issue of North Korea. Fujisue responded that the DPJ was aiming for the abolition of nuclear weapons and to open the way for peace-building. He explained about providing humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and talked about Japan’s position as a country that had suffered the effects of the atomic bomb, and about world peace. At the end of the discussion, the students took a commemorative photograph with Fujisue.
The Youth Summit is organised by the German-Japan Youth Association, and has been hosted in alternate years by Japan and Germany since 2005, with each year seeing increasing numbers of participants.
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