Saturday, April 23 1921: Japanese League of Nations Association

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, April 23 The first general meeting of the League of Nations Association will be held at Tsukiji Seiyoken. Iesato TOKUGAWA President, Eiichi SHIBUSAWA Chairman, Juichi SOEDA and Yoshiro SAKATANI Vice Chairmen, Junnosuke INOUE as accounting director and other prominent members. 70 people attended, including Foreign Minister Yasuya Uchida, a guest of honor. There were voices calling for the Association to make proposals on specific issues such as disarmament, the withdrawal of troops from Shandong, the anti-Japanese movement in the United States, and the Yap Island issue, which were the diplomatic issues of Japan at that time. However, Eichi SHIBUSAWA and others avoided leaving these issues to the discretion of the Board of Directors, and only solicited prize papers in commemoration of the first year since its establishment.

After the war, the League of Nations Association of Japan changed its name to the Japan Association of the United Nations, and even today it has its headquarters in Kyobashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo, and has branches in each prefecture. In addition to sponsoring the United Nations English Proficiency Test, an English proficiency test, we have held an essay contest every year to date. The Foreign Minister’s Prize, the grand prize in 2020, was given to Keiki Hiramoto’s “In 2045, the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, I want to create a world in which the global environment will recover the more we live comfortably.” in the 2nd year of Hokuriku Gakuin Junior High School in Ishikawa Prefecture.