Tokyo: Japan Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet (JPSGT), the largest Parliamentary group, held the working committee meeting on 19 December at the Upper House Parliament building and unanimously appointed Yamatani Eriko as the new Chairperson and Yamada Hiroshi as the General Secretary of the Parliamentary support group.  

Shimomura Hakubun, the outgoing Chairperson, expressed confidence and satisfaction that he is handing over the charge to Yamatani Eriko, a respected lawmaker with a strong feeling for the Tibet issue and the human rights situation in neighbouring countries. He also appreciated Yamada Hiroshi as the new General Secretary and expressed full optimism and hope that Yamada will greatly contribute to promoting the Tibet issue in the country. 

The new Chairperson, Yamatani Eriko, thanked the committee for entrusting the responsibility and promised to do her best to make the Tibet issue heard and well received. She reminisced about her visit to Dharamsala and audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2011 and her membership in the support group since its founding in 2016. 

Yamada Hiroshi, the new General Secretary of the Parliamentary group, greeted the committee members and expressed hope to work with the Tibetans and all the parliamentarians across the political parties to deliver justice and freedom to the Tibetan people. 

Madam Sakurai Yoshiko of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals talked about the importance of the Tibet issue and strongly urged that the Tibetan people should have full freedom to practice their religion and culture. She said despite the Chinese constitution, the CCP has been denying Tibetans and other nationals of their rights to practice their language and preserve their identity. 

Representative Dr Tsewang Gyalpo Arya of the Liaison Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama thanked the committee for organising the meeting and for inviting him. While thanking the outgoing Chairperson Shimomura Hakubun and General Secretary Ishikawa Akimasa for their strong support, he welcomed Yamatani Eriko and Yamada Hiroshi as the new Chairperson and General Secretary and offered Tibetan traditional white scarves to them. Representative Arya appraised the committee members of several pending issues and future projects. The members discussed and resolved some of the issues and left the remaining for further discussion in the next meeting. 

Lawmaker Furuya Keiji, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee to Monitor China’s Human Rights, encouraged the participation of other committee members also in such discussion in future to enable information sharing and to see what all the committees could do together. 

Watanabe Shu, Acting Chairperson, thanked the committee members for the attendance and as a concluding remark he said we all should work and ensure a world order where there is freedom from the fear of repressions and for this, we must stop the rise of dictatorships around the world. Urano Yasuto, Toru Azuma, and Miki Kee of the Japan Innovation Party were among the members attending the meeting. 

-Report filed by Office of Tibet, Japan