Dr. Jacqueline Sharp, President, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF),
Members of the Governing Council, and
Ladies and Gentlemen. 

It gives me great honor to receive the “IPPF Award for the Individual Contribution to Sexual and Reproductive health and Rights”.  It is indeed the greatest pleasure for me as I have been engaged with the family planning movement for 55 years since 1954.  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the President and the Governing Council members who have decided to confer the award upon me.

Looking back to 55 years ago, I can recall that the joint promotion of family planning by government and non-government organizations in Japan was ignited by IPPF.  In October 1955, IPPF organized the 5th International Conference on Family Planning in Tokyo.  This conference triggered the family planning movement in Japan.  I was a staff member of the Family Planning Federation of Japan which hosted the conference, and was working under the leadership of the late Shidzue Kato and the late Chojiro Kunii to make the conference a success.  The overwhelming impression I had as a young staff member in the extraordinary passion and energy gushing out from IPPF leaders such as Margaret Sanger from America, Dhanvanthi Rama Rau from India, and Elise Ottesen-Jansen from Sweden is still vivid in my mind like an event that has happened only a day before.

The 6-day conference was attended by 101 participants from abroad and 600 from Japan.  The media covered the conference every day as the first large-scale international conference in Japan after World War II.  The media gave a great publicity effect on the nation.  We at the Japan Family Planning Association took advantage of this conference.  While maintaining close cooperation with the relevant government offices and academic groups, we began to conduct extensive IEC activities, to train and organize family planning workers on the national level, to organize events to publicize family planning, to develop and produce educational materials, and to distribute contraceptives.  Our slogan in those days was “Protect Mothers’ Health, Bring up Healthy Children, and Build Happy Families.”

At present, 55 years after its establishment in 1954, the Japan Family Planning Association is actively conducting its nationwide movement centering on the 5As advocated by IPPF.  The current goal of the association is to “build a society in which people can receive RH services if they so desire anywhere in the country.”  I am confident that the reason for the association to have been able to sustain its activities for over half a century lies in its self-supporting system that is maintained through its self-help efforts.  Incidentally, one of the goals of the association at the time of its inception was “Avoid unwanted pregnancies through safe contraception not through induced abortion.”  Our efforts have achieved favorable results as the registered cases of induced abortions have been reduced to nearly one fifth the level of 1955 from 1,150, 000 to 240,000 in 2008. 

Chairperson,

I have explained that the family planning movement in Japan was triggered by IPPF through organizing its international conference in Tokyo, which gave the Japanese government and concerned parties impetus for the movement to expand later.  We are thankful to IPPF for its contribution, and at the same time, we seriously considered what we could do for IPPF as a member association.

When my boss, the late Chojiro Kunii visited the IPPF office in London in 1966, he happened to learn that Mr. William Draper who had played an important role in the postwar economic reconstruction of Japan was a financial advisor to IPPF.  Mr. Kunii thought of inviting Mr. Draper to Tokyo to meet the leaders of business and political communities to persuade them of the importance of world population problems and the necessity of financial assistance to IPPF which was working for the solution of population problems in the world.  His visit to Japan in 1967 was a great success.  Mr. Draper and the then most influential Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi got along well and both agreed to the establishment of an organization specializing in international cooperation, hence, the foundation of JOICFP in 1968.  Former Prime Minister Kishi became the first chairperson, and under him, we immediately began our advocacy activity.  The Japanese government decided on contributing 100,000 US dollars to IPPF in 1969.  This annual contribution has continuously been made to date, and the accumulated amount totals 461,920,000 US dollars.

Chairperson,

I had many occasions to observe family planning programs carried out in developing countries in the 1970s.  I had an impression that the programs sponsored by the governments might incline to be imposed one-sidedly by the governments, that is to say, they were conducted with a top-down approach.  In Japan, we considered the freedom of having or not having a child as the basic principle of our movement, and we emphasized a bottom-up approach to motivate people to participate in the movement.  I felt this bottom-up decision making and action taking approach was often lacking in other programs.  I learned through our movement in Japan that the promotion of family planning would mean a very sensitive personal matter involving the sexual life of men and women, and that this work would not be successful unless family planning workers and clients were tied with mutual trust.

The basic concept of JOICFP international cooperation in family planning is to integrate family planning with other subjects which are highly needed by local people and which do not require a great amount of fund.  Through working to satisfy other needs in the community, program organizers can develop trust with local people and, as a result, they can help enhance family planning practice rates.  With this strategy, and obtaining cooperation and support from the Japanese government, UNFPA and IPPF, JOICFP initiated the “Integrated Parasite Control, Maternal and Child Health, and Family Planning Project” in 1974.  At the beginning, the project was implemented in Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, all countries that were in favor of the idea, and that promised their cooperation.  In following years, the experience and know how were accumulated and shared by many other countries, and the integrated project has been extended to 31 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.  The promotion of the projects in the past 35 years gave the JOICFP staff a valuable stock of experiences and know how.  Being confident in their approach, they are currently engaged in project implementation in 13 countries. 

In China, especially, the Integrated Family Planning, Maternal and Child Health, and Parasite Control Project (IP) began in 1984 based on the memorandum signed by JOICFP and the China Family Planning Association with the financial assistance of IPPF.  Initially, the Integrated Projected was introduced in two communities, one in Shandong Province and the other in Jiangsu Province for a three-year term.  Then, the IP had been expanded across the country, and by 2004 all 31 provinces, special cities and autonomous regions were covered.  Currently, known as the Integrated RH/FP Program with health education and services, the IP experience is being expanded into other areas with their own resources.  In 2005, in Taicang City, Jiangsu Province, the China RH/Family Health Training Center was built with the funds provided by the Chinese government, both central and local, and also assisted with the equipments by the Japanese government grant. This is now serving as the government’s training center for trainers of training (TOT).

Ladies and gentlemen,
As you all are aware, the world has been suffering from the global economic recession, and Japan is also seriously affected.  In the general election in August this year, the Liberal Democratic Party lost its seats after 55 years in power.  The ruling party now is the Democratic Party of Japan.  According to the policy commitments, most notably, to avert bureaucratic meddling in politics, and to get rid of useless spending, the party is now drastically reviewing the budgetary allocations.  It is beyond our prediction how this review will affect IPPF.  Working as the IPPF Tokyo Office, JOICFP will devise a new strategy to approach the government and parliament members, and conduct more active advocacy campaigns to the public in an effort to maintain the government’s contribution to IPPF.  At the same time, we will strengthen IPPF-JOICFP partnership and consider what we can do to reinforce the activities of member associations.

At the occasion of having the honor of receiving the award, it was my pleasure to have the opportunity to say a few words of my impressions from the 55-year history of my involvement in the family planning movement.
I thank you for your attention, and I would like to express my hearty appreciation again to you all for offering me the award.

Thank you.

Yasuo Kon
21 November 2009