For almost 70 years, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – today a global organization operating in over 130 countries with more than 12,000 staff – has been providing protection and assistance to the world’s refugees. UNHCR’s primary purpose at UNHCR is to safeguard the rights and well-being of people who have been forced to flee. Together with partners and communities, we work to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another country. We also strive to secure lasting solutions.
Since its foundation in 1950, UNHCR has helped millions of people to restart their lives. They include refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers. Our protection, shelter, health and education has been crucial, healing broken pasts and building brighter futures.

We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 71 million people around the world have been uprooted by conflict, human rights violations and persecution. Among them are nearly 26 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18, and over 10 million stateless people who have no access to a nationality and are often deprived of their basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. In a world where over 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute, our work at UNHCR is more important than ever before.

For many years, Japan has played a lead role in supporting humanitarian action throughout the world. UNHCR values its deep and longstanding cooperation with Japan in the international displacement arena.

Globally, the number of people forced to flee from conflict, violence, human rights violations, and persecution surpassed 100 million for the first time in history. As old conflicts continue to rage on and even intensify, and new crises erupt, resources to cope with humanitarian needs are dwindling.

In recent years, we have seen fresh displacement in and from countries like Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Venezuela, Yemen, and Cameroon. In the absence of durable solutions, refugees, and internally displaced persons from, or in, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia have little hope to return home any time soon. Most refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, also known as the Global South. A major challenge is in supporting these host countries and communities and ensuring the international community shares the responsibility.

Japan’s reliable financial support has helped and continues to enable UNHCR and its partners to operate in many situations. The Government of Japan’s commitment to the international community is further strengthened by its active support of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants in 2016 and the Global Compacts for Refugees adopted in 2018, and in 2023 Japan will lead global discussions on refugee assistance as a co-convener of the 2nd Global Refugee Forum. As an active Member State of UNHCR’s Executive Committee, Japan has promoted the humanitarian-peace-development nexus and the concept of human security to help improve peoples’ lives.

UNHCR’s presence in Tokyo aims to further strengthen the relationship with Japan and build partnerships with various stakeholders including the Japanese Government, civil society, educational institutions, the private sector, foundations, local government, youth, etc. to build a “whole of society approach” to find solutions for refugees.

Although Japan may be geographically far from the world’s crises, there are people who come all the way here to seek safety. Japan is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and has put in place procedures with potential to be developed into a comprehensive asylum system. UNHCR will continue to work with the authorities towards such a system, and support Japan’s refugee resettlement programme and alternative interim solutions like higher education opportunities for refugees in Japan.

In my 30 years of field experience at UNHCR in various parts of the world, I have seen how Japan’s prompt and continuous assistance protects the lives of people who are forced to flee and helps them rebuild their lives. Taking a “whole of society approach” is necessary to tackle the expanding and increasingly more complex, refugee crisis. By strengthening our ties with the people of Japan, we hope to work together to deliver the assistance that only Japan can provide to build a better future for refugees, internally displaced persons, and stateless people everywhere.