Yohei Sasakawa, born in Tokyo in 1939, has from an early age been deeply moved by the fact that our world is full of injustice and pain. He was originally awakened to this fact by an early experience that brought him directly into contact with the hardship faced by those affected by leprosy. It was this exposure that bolstered his conviction to devote his life to this cause and, in a broader sense, to social justice.

Yohei Sasakawa came to The Nippon Foundation as a trustee in 1981 and served as its president from 1989 to 2005. He assumed the chairmanship on July 1, 2005.

Under Sasakawa's stewardship, The Nippon Foundation has grown into a philanthropic force to be reckoned with. The many programs that he has initiated and developed have each incorporated his vision of a united world.

Sasakawa's guiding principle is simple: "The world is one family, all mankind are brothers and sisters." Under this broad philosophy, Sasakawa emphasizes the following four points in pursuing humanitarian initiatives:

Since the beginning, Sasakawa has used his position at The Nippon Foundation as a tool for social development around the world, striving to improve public health and education, to alleviate poverty, eliminate hunger, and to help the disabled. In this work, he has focused specifically on helping people to achieve self-sufficiency.

Elimination of Leprosy

Among all of his achievements, his devotion to leprosy elimination deserves special mention. It is special, not only because of the global success of his activities, but because of the way in which he has pursued this effort--with a dual emphasis on eliminating both the disease itself, and the social stigma that it engenders. He is constantly at pains to emphasize a fact that has been overlooked for too long; that leprosy's social stigma is much more insidious than the actual physical damage it causes.

Leprosy is among the world's oldest and most feared diseases. Until recently, the lack of an effective remedy meant that leprosy usually resulted in terrible deformity. It was thought to be extremely communicable and for thousands of years, patients have been abandoned by families, forced to live in isolation, and turned into social outcasts.

In the early 1980s, an effective cure became available with the development of multi-drug therapy (MDT). Unfortunately, a misperception continued that the disease is incurable. The result of this was that the even those who were cured continued to suffer severe human rights violations. Thus, in an effort to once and for all eliminate the roots of this stigma, from 1995 to 1999, Sasakawa directed his foundation to provide MDT throughout the world, free of charge. It was this initial push that got the ball rolling toward worldwide elimination of the disease. As a result, since 1985 MDT has cured 15 million patients worldwide.

Yohei Sasakawa has traveled extensively throughout the world, interacting and supporting those affected by leprosy. In recognition of these efforts, in 2001 the WHO selected him as its Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination. In this capacity, Sasakawa has redoubled his efforts, meeting with national leaders and discussing the issues of leprosy. When he visits, he also mobilizes the media, stimulating it to disseminate correct information about the disease to a wide public audience. It is largely due to the concentrated efforts of WHO, governments, NGOs, The Nippon Foundation, and the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation that leprosy is now confined to 4 nations. This is a vast difference from 1985, when the number was 122.

India is home to more people who have leprosy than any other country. For this reason, Sasakawa's work there has been intense. To date, he has visited more than 20 Indian states with his awareness messages. On these occasions he emphasizes the importance of encouraging average people to work toward elimination, as well as the necessity of social acceptance and an end to the discrimination. His repeated pushing resulted in tremendous efforts on the part of the Indian government, WHO and other actors. Thanks to this, India was able, on January 30, 2006, to announce the historic achievement of leprosy elimination at the national level (an incidence of less than one patient per 10,000 people in the population). However, due to its large population, India still has the largest number of leprosy patients in the world.

In recent years, Sasakawa has exhaustively visited countries that have yet to achieve the elimination goal. This continuous effort to motivate national governments, the WHO and NGOs has had a direct impact, most recently seeing Angola, Madagascar and Tanzania achieve the goal of elimination in 2006. As of February 2007, the only countries that have not yet achieved elimination are Brazil, Nepal, Mozambique, and Democratic Republic of Congo. It is hoped that within three years all of these remaining countries will have achieved the goal of elimination. Efforts must continue to be vigorously pursued.

Leprosy is being eliminated, in medical terms. In social terms, however, the problem remains. Stigma and discrimination are still rampant. Thus, from 2003 Yohei Sasakawa began approaching the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in order to place the issue of leprosy and human rights on the UN agenda. As a result, in August 2005 and in August 2006 the UN Sub-Commission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights unanimously adopted resolutions requesting that all governments take action to change the situation. Sasakawa is making the utmost effort to encourage the newly-organized UN Human Rights Council to officially address this issue. To this end, he is working closely with the Japanese government, which has a seat on the Council. However, it takes considerable time for the UN to reach the point where it can issue the necessary principles and guidelines for member governments to follow. Meanwhile, the social situation of leprosy-affected people remains unchanged.

For this reason, in January 2006, Yohei Sasakawa traveled to Delhi to deliver a global appeal to end the stigma and discrimination against people affected by leprosy. For this appeal, Sasakawa obtained the cooperation of 11 world leaders. Endorsing partners included Jimmy Carter (former US president), The Dalai Lama (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), R. Venkataraman (former Indian president) and others. The appeal went out to the citizens of the world, raising awareness and urging their support for UN and government actions. Following this, in January 2007, Sasakawa initiated a second global appeal, delivered from Manila, the Philippines. This second appeal was signed by 16 leaders of leprosy-affected people from all over the world. It is Yohei Sasakawa's conviction that the most powerful instruments for changing the image of leprosy and appealing for an end to stigma are the voices of those who have themselves been affected by leprosy. Sasakawa has been organizing people affected by leprosy, pushing them to stand up and make their presence felt in India and other endemic countries.

In 2006, Yohei Sasakawa also initiated a new foundation in India, named the Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation. This organization was established as a local Indian trust. It aims to assist in the economic independence and social rehabilitation of leprosy-affected people in the country.

Yohei Sasakawa's fight against the disease continues in both the medical and social arenas, and he is ever more firmly determined to devote his life to this cause until the world is finally free of leprosy.


A fight against hunger: Agricultural development in Africa

Food is one of humankind’s basic requirements. However, when Sasakawa saw that, in parts of the world, entire populations must go without food for great lengths of time, he inaugurated Sasakawa-Global 2000, a program that enables African nations to attain self-sufficiency in the area of crop production. It has been implemented by the Sasakawa Africa Association in 15 sub-Saharan countries, including 4 countries in which it is currently under development. Under SG 2000, scientists and agricultural instructors work hand in hand with local farmers, under the leadership of Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and initiator of the Green Revolution. The scientific farming methods that the program brings has more than doubled crop production in the areas that it has reached.


Nurturing Future World Leaders

Today’s world is rife with conflict and misery. This is up to our generation to deal with. However, there is no need for the future to be as difficult as the current age. Sasakawa believes that education not only gives individuals the opportunity to better their lives, but in a broader context enables entire populations to decide their own fate. In accordance with this vision, he created the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund (SYLFF), a grant-in-aid program that has provided million-dollar endowments to 68 universities and consortia in 44 countries. The purpose of the program is to develop future generations of leaders in the fields of the social sciences and the humanities.


Maritime Development

As stated, Sasakawa chairs The Nippon Foundation. This is an organization that has given a special focus to the development and protection of the world’s maritime and marine resources. The oceans, with their inherently global nature, both tie our world together and possess unlimited potential for conflict. It is for this reason that Sasakawa has guided his foundation in efforts to strengthen the framework within which nations use the seas. Knowing that strong structures are built by people with an intimate understanding of the field, has extended his focus on global education to this area with the creation of major scholarships at the World Maritime University, the International Maritime Law Institute, and the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea.

Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowships

In Asia as well as the world at large, Sasakawa has approached his effort to develop the region with the same focus on developing the most fundamental building blocks—its people. This can be seen first in the API Fellowships, or Nippon Foundation Fellowships for Asian Public Intellectuals. This program, which he has endorsed, was developed with support from many of Asia’s renowned public intellectuals. Public intellectuals are a broad group, defined as “academics, researchers, media professionals, artists, creative writers, NGO activists, social workers, public servants and others with moral authority, who are committed to working for the betterment of society through the application of their professional knowledge, wisdom and experience.” Selected fellows conduct their research and exchange activities in other Asian countries under three general themes:

Since its inception in 2000, as many as 240 fellows have been chosen from the region. These people are constructing a strong network and are ready for collaboration on common problems. The API community is expected to be a new force of change and reform in the region.


Programs with China

Seeing a need for stronger mutual understanding between Japan and China, Sasakawa has built two programs that focus on this relationship. The first is for Peking University graduate students, and enables them to pursue the field of international studies, spending half of their time at Waseda, one of Japan’s premier universities, and half at Peking University. The other program has, for nearly 20 years, brought doctors and medical specialists from China to Japan to study the most recent developments in medical technology. To date, nearly 2000 people have studied under this initiative.


Education for All

Sasakawa knows that, while it is the university graduates and the specialists who will ultimately decide the direction that societies take, the societies themselves will not be able to move effectively if the people that comprise them are not educated. When you educate a person, you not only give that person the ability to enrich his own future, you enable him to enrich his society as well. For this reason, Sasakawa has guided his foundation, as it builds hundreds of elementary schools in places that cannot afford to build their own, or places that, for one reason or another, have been neglected. In the ex-Khmer Rouge areas of Cambodia and throughout Myanmar, for example.


Help for the Disabled

The more people that take an active role in society, the more vigorous that society will become. This fact has guided Sasakawa, not only to build elementary schools, but to develop programs that bring another, traditionally neglected group more fully into participation in society. That group is, people with disabilities. Throughout South East Asia, Sasakawa has supported programs like the Cambodian School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, which trains the specialists who provide amputees with prostheses, or Vietnam’s Dong Nai project, which enables deaf people to take part in the general education system. Often, people with these disabilities have had to rely on family or friends for food, shelter and the other basics of life. However, with programs that enable them to overcome their disability, they become able to take care of these things themselves. Not only do they cease to be a drain on family income, they actually begin contributing to it, a doubly positive effect.


Maritime Safety Measures

Asian societies are benefiting directly from these initiatives. And as they grow more prosperous, the issue of regional trade and its attendant security comes more into the picture. Much of Asia is inherently reliant on the sea for trade and for resources. And yet, its myriad islands and complex coastal systems have the potential to make Asia’s seas some of the most treacherous in the world. This is particularly true in the area between Indonesia and Malaysia, known as the Malacca-Singapore Straits. The straits, which connect Southeast Asia with Europe and Africa, are is vital to regional health. But with their shallowness, the complexity of their currents, and the ever-present danger of piracy, they present innumerable dangers.

For this reason, Sasakawa has devoted a large amount of effort to ensuring the safety of this area. Over the past few decades, his foundation has built more than 30 buoys and navigational aids along the straits. It has donated two ships, one to Indonesia and one to Malaysia, for the purpose of caring for these buoys. It has conducted underwater surveys and developed nautical charts to aid the thousands of ships that pass this way.

Equally importantly, it has conducted international meetings between high-level officials of the various Asian coast guards, in an attempt to reduce the number and severity of pirate attacks in the region. This effort has had a major impact, and in the past two years, regional piracy has fallen by 40%. All of this work has been done at Sasakawa’s direction.

In March 2007, at Sasakawa’s initiative, a Symposium on the Enhancement of Safety of Navigation and Environmental Protection of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At this symposium, Sasakawa proposed a new voluntary fund for navigational safety and urged that users of the straits take the lead in donating funds. His remark, “The burden should be shared equitably among the relevant parties,” was well accepted by the stakeholders and helped promote a positive understanding of the need to establish new measures.


Yohei Sasakawa is a philanthropist whose words and actions continue to have a major impact on the world. His successes have brought hope to millions, whether due to improved sources of food, an end to social discrimination, or opportunities through education, to improve their own lives. His maritime projects have worked in broad and concrete ways, building the foundations of safe and responsible use of our oceans. Yohei Sasakawa has taken the words “The world is one family, all mankind are brothers and sisters.” and turned them into a living work of art.