Japan has filed its candidacy for a vote to join the U.N. Security Council as a nonpermanent member for a two-year term starting 2032, the top government spokesman said Tuesday.
In January this year, the country began its current stint as a nonpermanent member of the 15-member council, a post it has served a record 12 times, with intervals of two to six years between each stint. But it will not assume a seat again until 2031, as India and Indonesia have declared their candidacies for earlier terms.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said during a news conference that Tokyo completed procedures for registering its candidacy on May 16. If elected, Japan will take a nonpermanent seat for the 13th time since it joined the United Nations in 1956.
The U.N. General Assembly, consisting of 193 countries, holds an election every year for half of the 10 nonpermanent seats, which are allocated according to geographical region, with Asia having two slots. Countries are not allowed to seek back-to-back terms.
Tokyo's bid was announced amid perceptions that the council, in charge of ensuring international peace and security, has appeared dysfunctional over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and North Korea's repeated ballistic missile tests, with permanent members Russia and China, the latter a key benefactor of North Korea, exercising their veto power.
"The Security Council is not necessarily functioning effectively, but it is playing a role to a certain degree. Japan attaches importance to it," Matsuno said.
"We aim to strengthen the international order based on the rule of law," he said.
The five permanent members, all of which are nuclear powers, also include the United States, Britain and France.
Japan has long expressed its ambition to become a permanent member of a reformed Security Council, together with other nations such as Germany, India and Brazil.