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My field of study is international law, and I specialize in international human rights law. International law is primarily a law that regulates relations between nations, but in modern international law, each nation promises to protect human rights in their own country through treaties concluded between nations. These multilateral treaties, called "human rights treaties" because they aim to protect human rights, include the International Covenant on Human Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In addition, even if a country has not signed a treaty, there are rules that are recognized by the international community as customary international law that must be observed, such as the prohibition of torture. These human rights treaties, the systems for implementing them, and customary international law related to human rights are collectively referred to as international human rights law.
International human rights law is not just a promise made by nations, but is meaningful only if each country properly implements its contents, so we research, compare, and analyze actual legislation and legal precedents to see how international human rights law is being implemented in each country. Furthermore, we use examples from other countries as a reference to consider measures to promote the protection of human rights in Japan from a legal perspective.

I graduated from Faculty of Law at this university, and have been interested in the existence of nations and the relationships between nations since I was a student. I wanted to broaden my horizons by studying not only the Japanese Constitution but also international law, and I have continued to study the field of international law ever since.

With my undergraduate teacher, Professor Motokazu Kikuchi, who encouraged me to go on to graduate school (2011)

What got me into the world of international human rights law was reading the original text of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (an international court established under the European Convention on Human Rights) after I entered a master's course at graduate school. The decision in the Golder case (1975) is particularly memorable. A prisoner (Mr. Golder) tried to file a civil lawsuit for defamation over an assault that had occurred in prison, but was unable to do so because the prison authorities refused to allow him to meet with his lawyer or send him letters. The European Court of Human Rights broadly interpreted the "right to a fair trial" stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights, stating that this does not only require fairness in trials already pending, but also contains the right to access the court (i.e. to file a lawsuit), and Golder won the case. Since the European Convention on Human Rights is a treaty whose purpose and objective is to protect human rights, the European Court of Human Rights adopted an interpretation that was consistent with its purpose and objective. Moreover, even though it interpreted the treaty broadly, the interpretation was very logical, precise, and persuasive. When I read these judgments, I felt as if I had caught a glimpse of the "wisdom of mankind" in the system that guarantees human rights using international law and in the people who operate it, and I was deeply impressed. The impression I felt when I came across the precedents of the European Court of Human Rights was the starting point for my subsequent dedication to the study of international human rights law.
My motto in research is to stay true to my academic beliefs. I also always try to be stimulated by opportunities to interact and discuss with researchers from overseas, and to deepen my thinking.

In 2012, I revisited Geneva, where I had studied as a graduate student from 1991 to 1993. As I am a member of the alumni association, I was given special permission to tour the construction site of the student dormitory.

You may have the image that law is a memorization-based subject, but there is of course no need to memorize the entire collection of laws. What is important is to acquire logical thinking skills, such as syllogism. Furthermore, it is essential to discuss not only "interpretation theory" but also "legislation theory". Interpretation theory is about how to apply existing laws to facts, but there are cases where problems cannot be solved by existing legal interpretation, such as when legal provisions do not exist or are insufficient, and there is no legal provision that can serve as a basis for determining that something is a "violation of the law". For example, in Japan, for a long time, there were no legal restrictions on the limit of overtime work that workers could be made to do. Even now, there are no legal restrictions to protect the lives and health of workers, such as the special law (abbreviated as "Wage Special Law") that allows public school teachers to work overtime, and only a few percent of their monthly salary is added to their salary regardless of how many hours they work. For such matters, it is necessary to be conscious of the problem and think about legislative discussions such as "how should the law be revised" and "what kind of law should be created". Law is an incredibly deep subject that cannot be understood through memorization alone.
The human rights of workers are also related to international human rights law, but there is no law that clearly indicates that something is a violation of the law. Another example of this is that Japan has no law prohibiting racial discrimination in social life. The provision of "equality under the law" in Article 14 of the Constitution mentions racial discrimination, but the Constitution cannot be directly applied to racial discrimination committed by private individuals or organizations, such as refusal to enter a store or a tenancy, or racist hate speech. If a victim wants to sue in court, they have no choice but to use the general provision of "tort" in the Civil Code. The tort provision in the Civil Code states that a person who intentionally or negligently infringes the rights or legally protected interests of others is liable for compensation, but it does not explicitly state that racial discrimination is prohibited. There is no choice but to insist that judges apply this to hate speech, and since racial discrimination is not explicitly prohibited by law, the normative awareness that racial discrimination is illegal is not easily widespread in society.
The absence of laws prohibiting racial discrimination is a very legally flawed situation. The majority of countries that are considered developed have laws that prohibit the treatment of people in terms of goods, services, housing, education, etc., based on skin color or ethnic origin, and such acts are clearly illegal. Japan is a party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, but has not been able to establish domestic laws accordingly. Japan has an "automatic acceptance" system for the treaty, and if a country joins the treaty, the treaty automatically comes into effect in Japan (= becomes current law) simply by publishing it in the Official Gazette. At first glance, this seems like a good system, but in reality, there are situations where domestic laws are left as they are even when they are needed. There are many researchers and lawyers who are concerned about this issue, and these issues are often taken up as topics at academic conferences and research meetings.

When I went to Norway to investigate human rights education, I met with Professor Eide, who is well-known in the field of international human rights law (2011).

How international human rights law is utilized cannot be understood without looking at the implementation status in each country, not just the international level, so comparative legal studies of the domestic implementation status in each country are extremely important. I have conducted research on European countries, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, and I would like to continue to deepen my knowledge and gain suggestions for Japan.
Many countries around the world have an organization called a "National Human Rights Institution." This is a national institution that is independent of the government and has a broad mission to promote the protection of human rights in general, including the domestic implementation of international human rights law. Depending on the country, it may be called a "Human Rights Commission," "National Human Rights Commission," or "Ombudsman Bureau," but it is engaged in a wide range of activities, such as issuing recommendations to national and local public institutions based on research on human rights, accepting and mediating complaints regarding human rights violations, submitting opinions to courts in litigation cases, and creating human rights education materials. Currently, 120 countries around the world have established national human rights institutions, and there have been recommendations to establish one in Japan, but it has not yet been established. Of course, there are courts in Japan, and the existence of courts is essential, but there are aspects that make it difficult for ordinary citizens to do so, so it is very significant that a national human rights institution can mediate human rights violations in a simple and prompt manner. In addition, the activities of national human rights institutions with comprehensive human rights mandates, such as making policy recommendations to address a wide range of human rights issues such as child poverty and abuse, are extremely important in improving the human rights situation in the country.

At a symposium for Japanese and Korean researchers studying precedents of the European Court of Human Rights in 2023 (held in South Korea)

Currently, efforts towards the SDGs are spreading in various fields not only around the world but also in Japan. Environmental issues tend to be in the spotlight, but as symbolized by the idea of "leaving no one behind" at the beginning of the "2030 Agenda," the principles of the SDGs are based on human rights. Many of the SDGs' goals, such as "eliminating poverty" and "achieving gender equality," are consistent with international human rights law, and the human rights referred to in these goals reflect the system of international human rights law and cover both so-called freedom rights and social rights.
Human rights are fundamental values shared by the international community since the end of World War II, and international human rights law is becoming an increasingly important field of law in modern international law. Human rights is a topic of great social significance, and can also be said to be a practical academic field that is directly linked to everyday life, as it cultivates an attitude of respecting the rights of others while protecting one's own rights. We hope that each student will correctly understand and utilize human rights, and become a key person in promoting the protection of human rights in the places where they live.

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A cherry blossom viewing event for alumni associations from Swiss universities held at the Swiss Embassy, which has always warmly supported alumni activities (2024)