JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine APRIL ISSUE 2016 #Issue 15 | Page 62

ALFS
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
INTERVIEW
文化交流と相互理解を通じて平和と友好関係の促進を
ENHANCING PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP
THROUGH CULTURAL EXCHANGE
AND UNDERSTANDING
MRS. HARUKO KOMURA
PRESIDENT OF THE ASIA-PACIFIC LADIES FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY
ALFS stands for Asia-Pacific Ladies
Friendship Society. Could you please
tell us about the motivations and
goals of the society?
This Society was established in 1968 by former
president, Mrs. Mutsuko Miki and since then
has been pursuing the goal of helping Asian
women and children in need by raising their
standard of living and promoting friendship
and better relationships among the ALFS’
member countries.
When this Society was established, Japan had
very little understanding of the lifestyles of
other Asian countries and almost no cultural
exchange. The Society, therefore, was formed
to provide opportunities to meet with Asian
women to deepen the understanding of each
other’s respective cultural traditions and
ways of life.
Regarding the L for Ladies, why is
it important that ALFS is a women’s
organization?
When this association was first established,
men held most of the leadership roles in every
society. Additionally, at that time the political
and economic epicenter was mainly in Europe
and the U.S.
When Mr. Yoshio Iwata, the founder and the
first president of the Asia Center, observed that
the wives of Japanese leaders were also focused
mainly on Europe and the U.S, he realized the
need to disseminate the stance that “Japan,
situated in Asia, must make friends with other
Asian countries”. He therefore sought help
from Her Imperial Highness, Princess Mikasa,
who along with the wives of key government
and business leaders, bureaucrats, and the
wives of the Asian Ambassadors established
this organization with Mrs. Mutsuko Miki, the
wife of the Foreign Minister at the time, as the
founding president. Thus was the beginning of
the Asia-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society. children’s education. This began as a small
initiative, but today it has grown to such a
scale that each participating country can
utilize the distribution of approx. 1 million yen
towards people in need.
Where did the charity bazaar idea
come from? Based on the idea that peace is easier to achieve
when there are smaller differences in standards
of living, we want to continue helping people.
The charity bazaar was established in order
to share common concerns in relation to the
lack of sufficient financial support for the
well-being of women and children as well as According to the List of institutions in
2015, which received donations from
the ALFS Welfare Fund, each member
country received more than 1 million
61 // APRIL 2016
Mrs. Haruko Komura
President of the Asia-Pacific Ladies Friendship Society.
yen. How do you decide among the
various institutions which to give
donations and how do you monitor
their spending?
The bazaar is our major activity. Funds gathered
through charitable activities are aggregated and
then distributed to participating countries. The
Ambassadors’ wives make the decisions as
to how these donations are used. There is no
interference in the process of money distribution.
However, the countries that received donations
need to report on their spending by providing
receipts and photographs.
JAPAN AND THE WORLD MAGAZINE