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Ando Isamu, S.J. (Director) | ||
The Social Center of Tokyo came into existence 32 years after Fr. Janssens,
the Jesuit General at the time, published his Instruction on the Social
Apostolate (1949) appealing to set up "Centers of Information and
Social Action" all over the world where Jesuits are working. In 2005
there were 324 Jesuit Social Centers spread over five continents.
Several Jesuits in Japan had been involved in promoting social-welfare
activities long before the Tokyo Social Center came into existence and
the Japanese Province had established a special Committee to reflect on
social issues in Japan in order to implement the Society of Jesus' commitment
to a more just society.
Many factors and people contributed to the establishment of this Center.
Some were planned before hand, like the Socio-Economic Institute with its
Asian Relations Center at Sophia University, but some were providential
like the donation of a house and property by the deceased Ms. Elizabeth
Catherine Pedro. The Jesuit 32nd General Congregation (1974-75) and the
impulse given to the social justice ministry in East Asia by the "Socio-Economic
Life in Asia" (SELA), Jesuit organization very active at that time,
had certainly a definite influence in building some permanent structures
for Jesuit social apostolate in Japan.
The Tokyo Jesuit Center started in 1981 with some definite orientations.
Japanese society was pursuing euphoric economic industrial development
while many Asian countries were suffering from poverty and oppression.
The end of the war in Vietnam originated hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese
Boat people and other refugees from Cambodia and Laos, a situation that
provoked many people and organizations from all over the world to act on
their behalf. In Japan individuals and citizens’ groups joined hands together
to protect the refugees. There were also some Jesuits among them and through
the leadership of Fr. Arrupe, Jesuit General at that time a new organization,
the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) with temporal headquarters in Bangkok
(Thailand) was established. The new Tokyo center started operations in
close coordination with JRS and worked, from its very beginning, for the
acceptance of refugees and displaced persons in Japan and for the advocacy
of their human rights. The difficulties involved and the refusal of the
Japanese system to accept refugees created the need to work in collaboration
with other organizations in network systems. Since then, networking has
been one of the characteristics of the Tokyo Center.
Refugees opened more our eyes to the issues of poverty in many Asian countries
where Japan had become an economic influential country. We thought we were
in a position to make some contribution to alleviate situations of poverty
in several Asian countries where we were able to establish direct connections
with people.
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Catholic social teaching inspired us and we searched for Jesuit and other
catholic networks that could orientate our thinking. We worked along with
a number of NGOs and groups that yearn for a better human society where
human rights are respected, in particular with Catholic Justice and Peace,
but we also decided to make symbolic efforts by committing ourselves to
small-scale development projects that try to solve problems of poverty
around Asian countries. Thus, we concentrated in Vietnam and Cambodia,
following at the same time the initiatives of other citizens with whom
we collaborate.
Japanese society, as well as other Asian countries, has changed much during
all these years, and no matter our limitations we have tried to adapt to
the new situations. When the Tokyo center was established the ideological
conflict ? communism versus capitalism ? was effervescent while globalization
issues are now much in the open; poverty and oppression were outstanding
issues in many Asian countries and in spite of all the economic growth
in East Asian countries now, the poverty gap is leaving millions of people
in very un-human situations. Even in affluent Japan this is much felt nowadays,
with thousands of homeless people and the “winners and losers” coexisting
together. Since several years ago Japanese society is facing a new phenomenon,
the affluence of foreign workers coming to work in Japan, first from several
Asian countries, and at present even from far away Latin American countries.
Although in limited ways this center is also committed to this issue.
New situations and challenges make us to look for new creative ways to
continue the work of promoting greater awareness and commitment to more
human dignity and social justice. Team work, networking and further commitments
to the weak sectors in society with open minds to all sources of information
are essential to break new ground in the future. On the other hand, we
want to continue emphasizing the Jesuit character of this Tokyo social
center and, thus, we have started a new system of an apostolic team of
Jesuits and lay colleagues that take corporate responsibility in the running
of the center. The past 25 years are a valuable asset for future developments.
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