Japan Should Have a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council

🇯🇵 The world has changed drastically since the founding of the United Nations. Asia has only one nation with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council despite the fact that over 50% of the world's total population resides in Asia. The nation entrusted with this seat is given a lot of power and influence throughout the region regardless of their own commitments or lack there of to the international order and international law. Instead of allowing just one nation to wield this kind of power and influence in the IndoPacific and/or Asian region, there should be two.

Japan is the leading nation in Asia in this day and age as it has been in the past. Japan is a wealthy, liberal democracy. Japan is rated as the freest nation in all of Asia and as one of the freest nations in the entire world by Freedom House. Japan has a higher freedom rating than the USA. Japan is the only Asian nation in the G7. Tokyo is also the largest city in the entire world, and Tokyo has a reputation of being the most futuristic and innovative of all modern cities. Japanese society is extremely sophisticated, enlightened, and culturally relevant. Japan is a beacon of liberty and democracy in the world.

Giving Japan a permanent seat on the UN Security Council will give the country more influence in Asia and in world affairs. Specifically, Japan can act as a counter balance to the negative impact of Chinese influence throughout the region. Japan is a positive influence in Asia and the rest of the world, and we should magnify that positive influence by giving Japan a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

There have been numerous calls for UN Security Council reform. For instance, Germany is requesting a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. I understand why Germany wants that seat, but I don't believe that the world needs four European countries with permanent seats on the UN Security Council, even the current number of three is too many. And why should the world support Germany's candidacy for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council rather than Italy, when both are in the G7, both respect human rights, both are liberal democracies, and their economic and military strength are relatively equivalent? In light of the current crises, which were caused in part by Germany, I'm surprised anyone in Europe would even support Germany's candidacy. There is no valid reason to give Germany a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

I do support removing Russia from the UN Security Council as punishment for their war crimes and their aggression against Ukraine, as Ukraine has proposed. I believe Russia needs to be removed from the UN Security Council not only for their war crimes and aggression in Ukraine, but also in Africa, and the Middle East, and for their heinous humanitarian crimes in their own country. But I do not believe the world should replace Russia with another European country. The world should replace Russia with an Asian country instead - Japan. I believe even the nonaligned countries will support removing Russia from the UN Security Council if an Asian nation is given Russia's permanent seat.

This proposal will create a more balanced UN Security Council with two permanent seats for two European countries, the UK and France, two permanent seats for two Asian countries, China and Japan, and one permanent seat for one country from the Western Hemisphere, the USA. This proposal maintains one seat for each of the two modern-day super powers to prevent a world war, which is the point of the permanent seats on the UN Security Council by the way. Also to prevent a world war, this proposal ensures that all of the permanent seats are held by countries that are both the top economies of the world and the top military powers of the world. This proposal also ensures that all of the countries with permanent seats, other than China, respects human rights, liberty and democracy. This proposal reflects the new reality that Russia is not a part of the world's great power equation anymore – Japan is. Most importantly, this proposal reflects the current power dynamics of the world–not as you wish them to be, but as they truly are–which is exactly what the UN Security Council was originally designed to do.