Kon-nichiwa, UNAFEI family members! I hope all of you have stayed well. This emagazine is brought to you by UNAFEI Professor OKUDA Yoshinori (Mr). This is the first time for me to write the UNAFEI mail magazine, and I‘m very happy to greet and send my message to the global UNAFEI family.
I am writing this around mid-August, during Japan’s Obon festival. Obon is a Buddhist event that is held over a few days in mid-August. In Buddhism, it is believed that the souls of the ancestors return to this world during this period, and a series of events take place to commemorate them. Obon is one of the most important annual events for the Japanese family. This period also often means summer holidays. Many businesses are closed, and many people return to their hometowns. Flights and trains are usually very crowded during this period; however, due to COVID-19 pandemic, they seem to be empty this year.
Here, I would like to introduce one of the famous events of Obon in Japan; Mukae-bi and Okuribi. We get ready to welcome the souls of ancestors by making fires on the evening of the 13th of August. This fire is called Mukae-bi and is said to be a guide for the souls of our ancestors to keep them from getting lost. After the Mukae-bi, we offer food, flowers and so on to them. We light fires again to send the souls back in the evening of the 16th of August. This fire is called Okuri-bi. Gozan no Okuri- bi or large bonfires lit on five mountains in Kyoto is one of the famous Okuri-bi. It is so beautiful and fantastic. I strongly recommend that you visit Kyoto someday so you can see Okuri-bi in person.
I hope we will overcome COVID-19 soon and can enjoy Japanese summer events.
In this issue:
• Farewell message from ex-Director: SETO Takeshi
- Greetings from new Director: MORINAGA Taro
- UNODC/UNAFEI Joint Project for Cambodia on the development of community corrections (16 July)
- 1st Youth International Training Course (2-6 August)
- Schedule of forthcoming training courses (September-February 2022)
So, let’s get started!!
♦ Farewell message from ex-Director: SETO Takeshi
Hello, my friends,
On 16 July, I was transferred to my new position as the Director General of the Inspection Department of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, which is responsible for internal supervision of the entire prosecution service of Japan.
I worked for UNAFEI for more than
five-and-a-half years, serving as Deputy Director and then Director. During my
life at UNAFEI, I met and deepened friendships with many participants and
visiting experts of our programmes, personnel of the UNODC and the UN Crime
Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network Institutes, our counterpart
agencies in foreign countries, and so on. In addition, I had opportunities to
visit all continents (except Antarctica). These precious experiences definitely
widened my insight on criminal justice to a global perspective. The Kyoto
Congress, in which UNAFEI managed the Workshop 2 on “Reducing Reoffending”, was
especially memorable. I had a career spanning more than 30 years as a criminal
justice professional, and I had various opportunities to work in the field of
international criminal justice. However. I had never gotten the chance to
attend a UN Crime Congress. Therefore, I was delighted to participate in the
Crime Congress for the first time. Since the Kyoto Congress was held in a
hybrid format using in-person and online participation, I was unable to welcome
many of my overseas friends, but I gained a lot of new knowledge during the
Congress.
UNAFEI is still dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We have not conducted international training courses and seminars for one-and-a-half years. During that period, we only conducted one-day webinars and a public lecture, bilateral online trainings and a regional seminar. However, UNAFEI is now preparing to resume our international training courses and seminars through an online format. All UNAFEI professors and staff are looking forward to making new friends from all over the world.
Although I have left UNAFEI, I am also a member of the UNAFEI family. I do hope that I can meet you again in Japan or somewhere else soon after we overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. Until then, sayonara
♦ Greetings from new Director: MORINAGA Taro
Dear readers,
Greetings from Tokyo! I am MORINAGA Taro, a government attorney newly appointed as the Director of UNAFEI on 16th July this year. It is truly my pleasure being able to greet you all in this e-mail magazine.
To tell you a little bit about myself, I started my career as a government attorney back in 1994. In the early years, I worked as a public prosecutor in district offices in several places in Japan, engaging in criminal investigation, prosecution and court proceedings. My first experience in the field of international cooperation was in 2003 when I was transferred to the International Cooperation Department (ICD) of the Research and Training Institute of the Ministry of Justice, which is an institution in charge of providing technical assistance to developing countries in the area of law and justice. From 2004 to 2007, I was dispatched to Hanoi, Viet Nam, to serve as the chief advisor of a legal technical cooperation project operated jointly by the relevant institutions of Viet Nam and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Thereafter, I went back to the prosecution for a while, but was again assigned a task at the ICD in 2008 and worked there for four years. Then, after serving as the deputy chief prosecutor of a district office down south in Kyushu for two years, I entered UNAFEI for the first time in 2014 as the Deputy Director. And as UNAFEI moved from its old premises in Fuchu City to the new facility in Akishima City, where we are now, in October 2017, I assumed the position of the Director of ICD which also moved its office from Osaka to the same facility and worked there for nearly four years – and then again to UNAFEI. So, it is not my first time to work for this organization, and I feel like I have returned to the fold.
Now, as it seems to be the same almost everywhere and to everyone, the COVID-19 is a serious obstacle to UNAFEI’s activities. All training courses and seminars are either cancelled or postponed, or switched to on-line sessions. Research activities and local workshops, which otherwise will be conducted outside Japan by our members, are all halted. This is very much discouraging. But UNAFEI is not standing still. Making full use of modern technology, especially on-line conference systems, UNAFEI is continuing to conduct its training courses and seminars designed so as to achieve their expected results to the greatest extent possible, even under the difficult circumstances. Recently, we successfully completed the first on-line “Youth International Training Course” with the participation of students from many countries. The regular 4-week UNCAC Training Programme will be held on-line very soon. Other regular training courses and seminars will follow in the same way, making our staff quite busy. We welcome participation from many countries in these training courses and seminars. So please do not miss the calls for participation which will be forwarded to relevant institutions from the JICA office in your country. Even if they are conducted on-line, they will surely add something positive to your experiences. Believe me, on-line seminars and training courses are not bad at all. I can tell you because I’ve already done them many times, and participants were very much satisfied with them.
Having said so, with all our UNAFEI members, I am also the one who is dreaming about the days to come when we will be able to welcome and visit our overseas friends and do our training courses, seminars and workshops here and there, seeing each other in person and not on the computer screen. It is really an abnormal situation that we are hindered from traveling abroad. How I miss the international flights! Once this annoying pandemic is over, I am sure I will be one of the first ones that will jump on the next airplane to another country or capitol, be it Bangkok, Vienna, or wherever.
But I firmly believe that those days are not far away.
Mankind is on the way to defeat COVID-19, so we just need a little more
patience and caution. Meanwhile, please wash your hands, wear masks, keep distance
and take utmost care of yourselves and your family members. We’ll see you soon.
♦ UNODC/UNAFEI Joint Project for Cambodia on the development of community corrections
On 16 July 2021, UNAFEI, in collaboration with the UNODC, conducted an online seminar for Cambodian criminal justice officials. This seminar introduced e-learning material on community corrections which was developed as part of a joint project between the UNODC and UNAFEI. Forty-eight (48) participants from Cambodia, including H.E
Pen Pichsaly, Director General of the General Department (H.E Pen Pichsaly, Director General of the of Prosecution and Criminal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, General Department of Prosecution and Cambodia, other officials of the Ministry of Justice, judges Criminal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice,
and prosecutors of the provincial courts and prosecution Cambodia) nationwide, participated in the seminar.
E-learning materials introduced during the seminar were developed by UNAFEI professors to provide Cambodian criminal justice officials basic knowledge on community-based treatment systems for offenders, including Japanese practice which has been in place for more than 70 years.
Since Cambodia has been considering the introduction of a community-based treatment system for years, we hope that as many policymakers and practitioners as possible will access the e-learning materials and enhance their knowledge on community corrections
♦ 1st Youth International Training Course
From 2 to 6 August 2021, the 1st Youth International Training Course was successfully held. This training course targeted Japanese university and graduate students, as well as international students in Japan. It was the first time for UNAFEI to hold a training course targeting youth. Although the training course was planned to be delivered in a hybrid format (in person and online), it was conducted fully online due to the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo.
12 students from Japan and 11 international students from 7 Asian countries participated. The training course was conducted in English. Although some participants seemed slightly uncomfortable to speak in English at first, after 5 days of training, every participant seemed full of confidence to express their own opinions and ideas on the last day of the training course.
The theme of this training course was
“Youth Initiatives for Prevention of and Desistance from Drug-related
Offences”. Through the lectures from Japanese criminal justice
officials and foreign experts, the participants learned about drug-related
issues, such as the state of drug trafficking and manufacturing, particularly
in Southeast Asia, the involvement of organized crime in these processes,
treatment strategies for recovery from drug addiction, and criminal justice
responses to these issues.
Based on the lectures, the participants took part in group workshops. The discussion topics of the workshops were (i) to design an effective educational programme to prevent drug use among adolescents at school and (ii) as a case study, to consider the best intervention for a female drug addict with a history of unsuccessful treatment and repeated relapse.
After the active and exciting group workshops, the ideas and recommendations were reported to all participants and UNAFEI professors. The presentations by the participants were creative and insightful.
We hope this training course provided the participants with useful knowledge and experiences, and also encouraged them to find a way to solve a variety of social issues, as they pursue their bright careers in the future.
♦ Schedule of forthcoming training courses and seminars (September 2021 – February 2022)
UNAFEI’s training courses and seminars have been postponed due to the prevailing coronavirus situation since May 2020. Considering the ongoing pandemic, we are preparing to hold the following courses online. Please note that the schedule is subject to change.
- The 23rd UNAFEI-UNCAC Training Programme (Online)
22 September to 18 October 2021
- The 175th International Training Course (Online)
26 October to 11 November 2021
- The 176th International Training Course (Online)
15 November to 13 December 2021
- 15th Regional Seminar on Good Governance for Southeast Asian Countries (Online)
20-22 December 2021
- The 177th International Senior Seminar (Online)
12 January to 3 February 2022
That’s all for our current news from UNAFEI. I hope you enjoyed it and that it reminded you that you are, and will always be, a part of the UNAFEI family.
Best wishes,
OKUDA Yoshinori
Professor, UNAFEI ***************************************************************************************************
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