Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine (May 1999).
The Pacific Island Leaders Meeting (PALM) has been held every three years since 1997, overwhelmingly in Okinawa. (Okinawa + Miyazaki 4 times, Tokyo twice, Fukushima twice, Hokkaido once, Online once). However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), which is the primary organiser of the conference, cannot explain the significance of holding it in Okinawa. This is because it was I who laid the foundations for holding the PALM in Okinawa.
Mid-1999, I was called by Yohei Sasakawa of the Nippon Foundation.
'Prime Minister Obuchi asked my opinion on holding the PALM2 in Okinawa. He knew that the Island Nations Fund was already undertaking projects in Okinawa and I agreed with him. He asked for our cooperation, what can we do?"
What the Island Nations Fund has already undertaking in Okinawa refers to the journalist exchange with PICs and the Island studies event called ‘Coconuts College’, which I had been organising, mainly in the Yaeyama Islands.
The Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund, established in 1989, has been managed by me alone for nearly 30 years since 1991, after the sudden leaving of the first person in charge. I observed that the islands business is not understood by people in the big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. With the concept of connecting the PICs and islands in Japan, and listening to the islanders opinions about the islands business, I had been continuing the projects in the Amami Oshima and Yaeyama Islands since around 1994.
I immediately responded with a request for cooperation from PM Obuchi, saying that I could help with media coverage of the PALM2 in 2000. I was able to invite influential media in the region, mainly from the Pacific Islands News Association, which had been the contact point for the invitation programme for many years. As a result, PALM became known throughout the world. Then China, France and other countries began to imitate it.
PM Obuchi had a special feelings for Okinawa. However, he passed away just before 22 April 2000, the date of the PALM2. The Japanese Government had planned to host the G8 summit in Okinawa in the same year, creating the framework of the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit. In fact, PALM2 was held in Miyazaki, Kyushu. The host venue, the resort facility Seagaia, was in financial difficulties at the time and the PALM2 was meant to be a bail-out.
However, PM Obuchi's wishes were carried over to subsequent PALMs, which were held in Okinawa for the 3rd in 2003, the 4th in 2006 and the 6th in 2012. (The 5th in 2009 was held in Hokkaido, the 7th in 2015 and the 8th in 2018 in Fukushima, where there was an earthquake disaster.) The MOFA should have compiled an evaluation of the meaning of holding the PALMs in Okinawa, but it has not been able to do so. This is because the MOFA does not formulate policy. However, JICA Okinawa office and the Ryukyu University are carrying out specific activities in Okinawa for PICs.
I was involved in the Islands Study Centre of Ryukyu University. This was the result of Professor Hiroshi Kakazu, and Professor Hajime Oshiro, who were the presidents of the university. They were interested in my ‘Coconuts College’, so they contacted me. I decided to begin the joint project with the Island Studies Centre of Ryukyu University.
In 2022, Palau and Okinawa Prefecture signed a Memorandum of Understanding on strengthening friendly relations between the two countries. It is time for the MOFA and the Japanese Government to evaluate the past PALMs Okinawa and formulate a policy for the Pacific island countries.
