Submit your Article

Japan and Nepal have many things in common. One of them is that 70 to 80% of its land area is covered with mountains and hills. Considering Japan's history of constantly facing natural threats due to its steep terrain, I can fully understand, as a Japanese national, how difficult a challenge it is to undertake nation-building in a mountainous country like Nepal, Japan Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said.

The first thing that comes to the minds of the Japanese people when we hear the word "Nepal" is the divinely majestic Himalayan Mountains represented by Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest). Having been born and raised in Shizuoka Prefecture located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, I feel a deep sense of affinity with Nepal, and I am very pleased to be able to visit Nepal for the first time today, she said.

Another thing Japan and Nepal have in common is that both countries are democratic, and Japan has provided various assistance to Nepal's democratization efforts, the Japan’s foreign minister further said.

After the abolition of the monarchy and the transition to a federal democracy was declared in 2008, Japan dispatched election observers to the parliamentary elections.

In addition, Japan has also provided support for the development of the legal system and various other assistance that contribute to the promotion of democracy in Nepal. When I served as Justice Minister, the Ministry of Justice provided training on civil code and the development of civil code commentaries in support of the preparation for a new civil code of Nepal in cooperation with JICA, Minister Kamikawa said.

Both countries also have the same unfortunate history of suffering damages due to earthquakes. That is why, whenever the other side was affected by a major earthquake, our two countries have reached out to each other like family, with special compassion and solidarity. After the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, Nepal donated 5,000 blankets and our Nepali friends in Japan assisted in the setting up of Nepali soup kitchens as well as provision of Nepali coffee. After the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015, Japan dispatched the Japan Disaster Relief Teams (Urban Search and Rescue Team, Medical Team, and Japan Self-Defense Force Units) and provided an Emergency Grant Aid of approximately 1.68 billion yen as well as Emergency Relief Goods including tents and blankets, she said.

In addition to this emergency humanitarian assistance, Japan provided a total of over 32 billion yen for "Build Back Better" after earthquakes in areas such as reconstruction of schools, residences, and public facilities.

Following the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in January this year, we received heartfelt messages of sympathy from Nepal. Furthermore, the Nepali people living in Japan rushed to the affected areas many times to offer their support, and with the words "Friends should help each other in tough times" they cooked spicy curry to warm and encourage the hearts and bodies of the residents there amid heavy snow and severe cold weather. As Foreign Minister of Japan, I would like to express my profound gratitude to the Nepali people for their warm support and sympathy for Japan, the Japanese foreign minister said.

Japan and Nepal have also faced a scarcity of natural resources. Thus, both countries need an international community that ensures connectivity is free from force or coercion and values freedom as well as the rule of law regardless of the size of the country. To realize such an international community, it is a prerequisite that each country overcomes its vulnerabilities and builds a resilient society. With this in mind, Japan attaches great importance to Nepal will get on track for sustainable growth and stability.

Based on this idea, Japan has been supporting Nepal's development since 1969 in a wide range of fields, including infrastructure construction such as electricity, roads, airports, and water supply, as well as agriculture, education, and healthcare, with Nepal's geographical and historical background in mind.

The Nagdhunga tunnel, the breakthrough of which has recently been achieved, is Nepal's first mountain road tunnel. Once the construction of the tunnel is completed, it will contribute to the promotion of social and economic development in the region and strongly support Nepal's further development, facilitating the transportation network by meeting the rapidly increasing traffic demand, reducing travel time, and improving transportation safety. Through such assistance in infrastructure, Japan will continue its efforts to ensure that the people of Nepal can experience the safety and convenience of infrastructure in their daily lives, according to Minister Kamikawa.

In recent years, the presence of Nepal across Japan has been on the rise day by day. Over 120 years have passed since the arrival of the first eight Nepali students dispatched by the Government of Nepal in 1902. Today, our two countries are connected by direct flights that take about 7 hours. The total number of Nepalis living in Japan exceeds 170,000, the sixth largest number of foreign nationals living in Japan. I am very pleased to see that our bilateral relationship is steadily deepening thanks to the active participation of our Nepali friends in Japanese society.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to touch on cooperation with Nepal on "Women, Peace and Security" (WPS), which the Japanese government has strongly promoted in recent years and is also my life's work. WPS is based on the idea that society can be much closer to a more sustainable peace through the participation of women themselves in leadership positions in prevention as well as humanitarian and reconstruction assistance, while at the same time working to protect vulnerable groups such as women in times of crisis.

The Japanese government is strongly promoting WPS, and I have been involved in various initiatives since I became Foreign Minister. Nepal is the world's largest contributor of personnel for UN peacekeeping operations (PKO) and has the largest number of female PKO personnel in the world. As such, I believe that there is great potential for cooperation with Nepal in the field of WPS. During this visit to Nepal, I would like to explore with Nepal what kind of cooperation is possible in the future.

The year 2026 is the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Nepal, and also the year of Nepal's graduation from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category. As the Foreign Minister of Japan, I would like to further strengthen our relationship with Nepal towards this commemorative year and strongly support Nepal's further development after graduation from the LDC category, she said.

Ujjwal Prasai, a writer and educator based in Kathmandu, has written a biography, translated two books, including fiction, and contributed hundreds of articles to Kathmandu-based newspapers and magazines. As an avid reader with eclectic interests, he has navigated several worlds of academic and literary inquiries with the help of the books he has read. Here, ApEx presents an edited version of our conversation with Prasai on books.  

What book are you currently reading, and what was your last book? 

I usually start reading two to three books at a time; some I race-read and finish, others I go slow and take some time to complete. The last few books I completed reading are Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements are Leading the Flight for Our Climate by Ashley Dawson; Salman Rushdie's Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder; and The Cooking of Books: A Literary Memoir by Ramachandra Guha. I took considerably longer to finish the first one by Dawson as I took copious notes from the book; it did not take much time to finish the other two memoirs written in a lucid flow. I am currently rereading Annie Proulx’s novel Barkskins, and the other book I have just started reading is Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein. 

How often do you switch genres or mostly stick to one kind of writing and accidentally read other genres? 

Genre-wise, I am very eclectic. I read as much fiction as I read academic and literary non-fiction. However, I always look for exciting blends like rigorously researched but written with the style of literary fiction or adopting the approach of popular writing, hardcore political writings written with poetic flair, and historical details written in very lucid prose like the writings of Ranajit Guha. After reading many academic, jargon-laden, or challenging writings, I pull poetry anthologies from my shelf. I have collected a few dozen of them in several languages: English, Hindi, Nepali, and some Urdu. 

Though a colossal number of academic writings continue getting published, it is said that very few people read them. Do you love reading academic stuff, or is it the compulsion driven by your academic job?  

I don’t judge a book based on its pages, number of footnotes or endnotes, bibliography or mechanics, etc. There are lovely books that are thick, and there are others that look like pamphlets but are fascinating and significant. For example, Paulo Freire's ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ cannot be dismissed just because it is relatively thin, or maybe Simon De Beauvoir's ‘The Second Sex’ cannot be discarded for not having pages of references at the back. Again, how can you say people don't read thick books like ‘Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover’, a biography of the writer Agyeya written by Akshaya Mukul, for being dense, having a lot of references, and hundreds of endnotes? Indeed, some books have specific audiences trained in certain areas of scientific inquiry, and they understand those books more than others. The books written by anthropologist Mark Liechty, like ‘Suitably Modern’ or ‘Far Out’, tell fascinating stories of Nepal and have all the required academic paraphernalia, including some jargon and technical terms. These books are being read by many who want to know Nepal better. Since I have learned a lot from academic books, I read them with admiration and respect. 

How often do you rely on reviews published in the popular press or the bestseller lists they publish weekly or monthly? 

I always scroll the news and magazine outlets for book reviews, and even in academic journals, I read book reviews first, and then I go to other articles. They help me a lot in deciding which books to pick and which not to prioritize. However, I am cautious about literary and academic echo chamber reviews. Reviews published as promotional materials don’t help much. I usually don't read bestseller lists, and they are not the guides I rely on. I typically list readings from the titles I collect as I read well-written and researched books; for example, I have prepared a long list of readings from the references of the books and articles I read in the last few months. The first one from the list I am starting in a few days is ‘The Value of a Whale’ by Adrienne Buller. 

It is often said that people are not reading much with the proliferation of digital media and social media platforms. Is it true? 

I have not read any properly done survey or robust research making this kind of claim. Well, this could be based on how people perceive the proliferation and impact of digital media, and maybe there are people who have started devoting more time to scrolling X or Facebook than to reading lengthy stuff. But I don't think reading will cease or dwindle to become negligible in the near future. Instead, digital platforms have added some advantages for the readers; people find several ways to get hold of e-books. I have seen many people reading many books in Epub and PDF formats on their electronic devices. Since we face many crises, including climate change, it is becoming increasingly important to read, think and interact more. I believe that, pushed by the crises, people will read more and think hard; some digital platforms may aid this process. 

Can you recommend some works of contemporary fiction for our young readers? 

I can give you a list of some of the interesting novels I have read in the last few months. Vivek Shanbhag’s ‘Sakina’s Kiss’, written originally in the Kannada language, tells a story of a complex (a reviewer called it dated) masculinity that represents a considerably large number of South Asian men. Another fiction that I recently read was ‘Chinatown Days’ by Rita Chowdhury; I picked this name from Amitav Ghosh’s recent book ‘Smoke and Ashes’. This novel tells the story of the uprooting of a small community of Chinese living in Assam during the war of 1962. Another fascinating work of fiction I read was Teju Cole’s third novel, ‘Tremor’; I call it a rich tapestry of ruminations on art, literature, colonialism and different yet interrelated human experiences. Those interested in thinking about the climate crisis may pick up ‘The History of Bees’ by Maja Lunde; the collage of a dystopian future with enough elements of historical fiction makes us think about the declining population of bees and its causes and alerts us to the alarming impacts it may have on the climate. 

Nepal is already caught in the geopolitics of great power competition, and we cannot escape from it. The only option left for us is building our capacity to deal with the fast-changing geopolitical situation. There is a national consensus that Nepal should use the current situation as an opportunity to advance its economic interests. Foreign and geopolitical experts, including this scribe, often wonder whether we have built our capacity to deal with the complex, uncertain, and chaotic world. In one way or another, Nepal is already bearing the brunt of increasing geopolitical tensions. The pressing issues that the global community is confronting are growing tensions between the US and China, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Taiwan tension, the Middle East crisis and the impacts of climate change. The impact of those issues in Nepal is evident in the conduct of foreign policy, the economy, and to some extent, the domestic political landscape. Over the past few years, we have already become hostages of indecision, ill-decisions, delayed decisions, or fractured decisions on important bilateral, regional or global issues.

To deal with the complex geopolitical situation and other global issues, Nepal needs to pay serious attention to strengthen the existing mechanisms and create new structures, if required. First, it needs to make the existing mechanisms effective. Second, it needs to work out whether it needs new mechanisms. Third, there should be effective and timely coordination among the key state institutions. 

Let's begin with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). The ministry has 10 divisions covering all countries, regional and global organizations. However, these divisions fall short of human resources and expertise to deal with global issues, given the workload of all divisions. The creation of divisions is based on geography, not issues. Like in many other countries, there are no think tanks within the ministry to support its functioning. Nor is MoFA tolerant or positive about the government think-tank, the Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA). MoFA officials have yet to realize the importance and role of think-tanks. They think, since they are involved in all bilateral, regional and multilateral negotiations, they have first-hand information on all issues and do not require inputs from any think-tanks. That is why, for a long time, the IFA has been left totally paralyzed.

And it is because of this hubris, the units within MoFA have failed to produce in-depth reports on important bilateral and regional issues. Take the examples of America's Indo-Pacific Strategy and China's Belt and Road Initiative. There has been no serious research and studies on either of these. As MoFA has not developed its capacity, other ministries and departments cannot take its support. Based on conversations with government officials, this scribe can conclude that there is a vague understanding of these issues among them, and they are facing difficulties in taking decisions. There is another side to the story too; there is a lack of independent experts and scholars who can conduct in-depth study and research on what Nepal's position should be in the changing geopolitical situation. There are some non-government think-tanks doing research, but government agencies and officials do not take them seriously due to their poor quality.

The underlying problem is that there is a serious flaw in the appointment of the foreign minister. Those who have at least some idea about foreign policy or geopolitics should be appointed foreign minister. On the one hand, the tenure of foreign ministers is usually short, while on the other, it takes several months for them to grasp the basic knowledge of how MoFA functions and what the key issues are. Foreign embassies or permanent representatives are one of the important wings of the ministry. However, they are almost dysfunctional. Barring some exceptions, Nepal is sending inexperienced, low-profile politicians as its ambassadors to key global capitals such as New Delhi, Washington and Beijing. 

There are some basic problems with ambassadors appointed on political quotas. First, they lack knowledge of the basics of how diplomacy works. Second, they usually do not cooperate with their respective division at the ministry; they do not even feel comfortable reporting to the foreign secretary. They work directly with the foreign minister or the prime minister. Whereas, career ambassadors have the tradition of not taking decisions out of fear of being dragged into controversy. That is why they confine themselves to day-to-day administrative tasks. There is, therefore, a need for a complete overhaul in the functioning of the ministry and its units.

Another equally important issue is the lack of cooperation between state mechanisms, mainly the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers (OPMCM). Currently, there is a lack of coordination between OPMCM and the Foreign Minister. In some cases, the OPMCM takes decisions without consulting or informing MoFA. One example of this is the appointment of ambassadors. There is also a lack of coordination between the foreign ministry and other ministries. In principle, all decisions and communication related to foreign policy should be conducted through MoFA, but this is not happening. At the same time, there is a lack of consultation between MoFA and security agencies. Not only is there a lack of coordination among ministries, but there is also a lack of coordination between MoFA, and provincial and local governments.

Experts have been raising this issue for a long time. But political leaders do not take these issues seriously because they are wielding foreign policy to advance their party and personal interests. If all the activities and processes are made transparent, they fear losing the privilege of making secret deals or appeasing others to remain in power. This is why they usually do not want to include MoFA officials in talks with other countries, except in formal delegation-level meetings. At the same time, Nepal seriously lacks capable human resources to deal with the complex geopolitics. This should be our priority issue although it may not be a priority issue for our politicians. Our politicians should realize that they alone cannot handle foreign policy in this complex geopolitical situation. Politicians may have certain issues with the foreign ministry, but there cannot be its replacement. They, however, have all rights to restructure it.

The economy is expected to experience improvement in the current fiscal year 2023/24, particularly with the expansion of the service sector, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in its economic forecasts for the current fiscal year.

In its preliminary national accounts estimates, the NSO has forecast a 3.87 percent economic growth (based on market prices) for the current fiscal year. Nepal's gross domestic product at consumer prices is estimated to reach Rs 5,704 bn in the current fiscal year. Likewise, the NSO has revised the size of the country’s economy in the previous fiscal year to Rs 5,348 bn.

The projections for the current fiscal year were based on the data of the first eight months of fiscal year 2023/24 and on assumption that the economy will continue to progress normally in the remaining period, according to the NSO.

The estimates, which have categorized the economy into 18 sectors, show progress in most sectors compared to the previous fiscal year.  The NSO has revised the economic growth rate of the previous fiscal year to 1.95 percent.

The service sector is forecast to experience the highest growth rate in the current fiscal year. Contributing an estimated 62.9 percent to the economy, the sector is projected to grow by 4.50 percent which is higher than the overall growth forecast.

Additionally, the primary sector, comprising agriculture and mining, is expected to grow by 3.03 percent. In the previous fiscal year, this sector's growth rate was estimated at 2.72 percent. Likewise, the secondary sector, which encompasses production, is projected to have the lowest growth rate of 1.20 percent, even lower than the previous fiscal year's estimate of 1.40 percent.

However, the industry and construction sectors are anticipated to experience negative growth in the current fiscal year. The industry sector's growth rate is forecast at -1.60 percent. Similarly, the construction sector is projected to have a negative growth rate of -2.07 percent in the current fiscal year.

Among other sectors, accommodation and food services are expected to record the highest growth rate of 21.84 percent percent, followed by electricity and gas with 17.44 percent, transportation and storage services with 11.89 percent, financial and insurance services with 7.80 percent, and human health and social work activities with 5.52 percent. The remaining sectors are projected to have growth rates below 5 percent.

Preliminary estimates suggest that exports will account for 7.94 percent of Nepal's gross domestic product in 2023/24, an improvement from the revised estimate of 6.96 percent in the previous fiscal year. Similarly, imports are estimated to constitute 33.70 percent of the GDP, compared to the revised estimate of 34.68 percent in the previous fiscal year. Likewise, remittances are expected to account for 22.96 percent of the gross domestic product in 2023/24, while the revised estimate for 2022/23 was 22.82 percent.

Per capita income reaches Rs 195,000

The annual average income of Nepalis is estimated to reach approximately Rs 195,000 in the current fiscal year. In US dollar terms, per capita income is projected to rise to 1,456, a rise of $51 compared to the previous fiscal year.  Nepalis are expected to spend 92.38 percent of their total income on consumption in the current fiscal year, according to the report.