Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC) is a non-profit organization committed to global social and economic justice. Since 1973, we have been working with a multitude of people’s movements in Japan to facilitate development of solidarity links with people in struggle in countries mainly in the Asia Pacific region.
PARC has its origins as the publishers of an English publication called “AMPO”, the Japanese shortened word for the US-Japan Security Treaty. In 1969, volunteer members from “Japan Peace for Vietnam Committee (Beheiren)” began this publication as “A Report from the Japanese People’s Movement” to communicate with the world that in fact a vibrant people’s movement exists in Japan and in the Asia Pacific, and that we are willing to build solidarity across borders. At the time, “AMPO” was one of the very few if not the only publication that offered the people’s perspective on Minamata, Okinawa, and Sanrizuka (Narita) to name some of the most highlighted struggles. As the publishers distributed copies of “AMPO” to our international colleagues, the office began to receive various forms of publications and resources from across the region. These were newsletters, periodicals, annual reports, booklets, and sometimes just photos with hand written letters. They were all invaluable resources that demonstrated the vibrance of peoples movements all hoping to achieve an alternative world.
Our name Pacific Asia Resource Center derives from our role in collecting, preserving and disclosing these resources. And through it we aim to become the medium by which movements and individuals can connect overcoming borders, targets and strategies. With the proliferation of online connectivity, our role as somewhat of an information clearing house of people’s movement has shifted, but we remain committed to building international solidarity.
We conduct various research project across borders and through the perspective of people’s movements. Previous and ongoing research projects include those on bananas, shrimp farming, mineral mining and its supply chains, impacts of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), misuse of Official Development Aid (ODA), predatory practices of Japanese Transnational Corporations (JTCs). In all these various research projects, we value being there, seeing for our own eyes, hearing with our own ears, and building solidarity-based relationships with those most affected. Through the research PARC strives to empower people into planning, conducting and utilizing their own research to build a people’s knowledge base to fight those in power.
PARC works in collaboration with international civil society networks to represent Japanese perspectives in the international arena and to help maximize international movements to affect problematic Japanese policies. Previous and ongoing international advocacy work include those on ODA policies, debt, trade negotiations, and Japan’s role in multilateral development banks (MDBs) and other international institutions.
Since 1982, PARC has operated one of Japan’s “Freedom Schools”. The freedom school movement in Japan materialized in such adult learning institutions originally in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Fukuoka in the 1980s. PARC has been involved from the start of the Freedom School on Tokyo and operates over 15 courses every year. The courses range from critical perspectives on domestic policies, indigenous language and cultures, organic farming, and creative activities such as dance and photography.
In 1980, PARC began distributing educational slides accompanied with a narrative cassette tape called “The Man-Eating Bananas”. It was a set of slides that can be projected to show real life situations in the banana plantations in the Philippines to be shown in high schools and colleges across Japan. Since that success, PARC has been involved in producing audio visual materials currently in the form of over 50 DVDs and streaming services to assist educators in conveying real life situations that are difficult for students to witness for themselves. Some of our more recent video materials include “Plastic Waste”, “Truth in a Smartphone”, “Bitter Truths of Sweet Bananas”, “Fukushima 10 Years Later: Voices from the continuing nuclear disaster.” These materials are used in over 200 higher education institutions.
As PARC has its origins in the publication of “AMPO”, publication and distribution has been a key activity throughout most of its history. Besides the English publication, PARC has published and distributed the periodical “Sekai Kara (From the World)” (Published from 1979 to 1992) and “Monthly Alternatives” (Published from 1992 to 2016), along with booklets, and other subscription based info packets. The role and effectivity of print media has changed in the years, and PARC does not currently have any print media in circulation, but we continue to publish editorials on our website.
Toyo Building 3F, 1-7-11, Kanda Awaji-cho
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan 101-0063
TEL +81-3-5209-3455
FAX +81-3-5209-3453
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