Peace Depot
The Peace Depot is a non-profit, independent peace research, education, and information institution which aims to build a security system that does not rely on military power. It was launched in November 1997, after a seven-year preparatory phase, and became incorporated as a Non-Profit Organization in January 2000 under the Japanese NPO Act. Peace Depot embarks on the following severn aims:
– To become a think tank on peace issues to serve citizens and grassroots organizations, and to support peace education.
– To promote activities in collaboration with NGOs around the world to change the prevailing view that peace is assured by military power.
– To promote activities consistent with an understanding of the unique part that Japanese people may play to advance world peace, based on Japan's pacifist constitution, its experience of atomic bombings, and reflection with regret upon its aggressive wartime role.
– To promote activities that emphasize accurate information based on primary sources and easy-to-understand analysis.
– To promote disclosure to the public of information on defense and diplomacy.
– To promote new cooperative relations between grassroots movements and specialist communities.
– To increase the social value of peace NGOs in Japan by fully utilizing the Peace Depot's status of incorporation under the 1998 Act on NPO.
Peace Depot’s major programs are:
Nuclear Disarmament – provide information about nuclear disarmament and security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Together with the Pacific Campaign for Security and Disarmament (PCDS), Peace Depot publishes the biweekly “Nuclear Weapon & Nuclear Test Monitor”.
Regional Security in the Asia-Pacific with research on U.S. Forces Japan.<\p>
Training NGO Activists and Researchers for Peace; this includes sending youth activists/researchers to major international peace events and holding seminars and workshops.
Emergency Projects.
For more information on these programs, see www.peacedepot.org.
