Last month -- Feb. 26 to be precise -- I was honored with a prize at the 4th Healthy Society Awards ceremony,held at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. I'm sure there'd be a few people out there angry at me for dedicating this space on a public site to talk only about me, but I figure the prize is a reflection of the five years of my life that I've spent writing this column, so I hope you'll forgive me.

Healthy Society Prizes are awarded for outstanding effort by an individual to build a healthier society; for those who have produced effective support for society as a whole or a particular group within or outside of Japan; to encourage consideration for charity or benevolence toward those in need of help; to offer incentive to those who show kindness to others or maintain the wonderful Japanese tradition of volunteering to help others and to hold up as a symbol those who are irreproachable and stand as an example of someone society can respect.

When I learned I had received the prize, a friend mailed me saying, "Kitamura, I've looked up what 'irreproachable' means in the dictionary," joking that perhaps I didn't quite fit the bill. I've got to admit, I was pretty stunned, too. Johnson and Johnson and the Japan Nursing Association started these prizes in 2004, with this year being the fourth time they have been presented.

Incidentally, the official reason I received the prize was: "For many years spent working to improve women's health, prevent abortion and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as providing sex education seminars across Japan. For numerous successes in actively engaging the Diet, governments, schools, the media and academic societies and for long efforts lobbying for approval for low dose oral contraception (the Pill)." The ceremony itself was like being at the Academy Awards, with Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Hitachi, prominent politicians and business people and important figures from the private sector among the more than 400 in attendance. Recipients were permitted to give a thank you speech, but told we would be strictly limited to three minutes. Please allow me to use this column to present the speech I gave, reproduced below.

I strongly feel we're made to stumble across things. We're made to think about the age we live in, the issues confronting our times and the people we come across. I'm very honored to have been presented with a Healthy Society Award and deeply moved at what I see as a result of my gears all fitting into place.

Japan, 40 years after the United States, finally approved use and began sales of the low dose oral contraceptive, the Pill, in 1999. Some 10 years or so before that, in 1988, I began working at the Japan Family Planning Association, which was actively committed to preventing artificial termination of pregnancies. It gave me many chances to meet with women who came to the clinic for consultations worried about unwanted pregnancies. At the time, the Pill was widely approved for use around the world, but not in our Japan. I had many chances to talk to the foreign media, which was almost eagerly rushing to report on how lightly Japan regarded the sexual and reproductive health of its women. When I was told I had won this prize because of my efforts lobbying to receive approval for use of the low dose oral contraceptive, my initial thought that it wasn't because of anything I had done, but more because the women who wanted the Pill approved for use had gotten behind the typically lazy me and made me do something about it. In that regard, this prize should not be awarded to me personally, but to the many people who had an interest in this issue.

The 2003 white paper on world population has a message saying that investing in the health and rights of young people going through puberty reaps great profits for future generations. I have recently read many newspaper reports of newborns resulting from unplanned pregnancies dying after being dumped and left for dead. When I see reports of things like this, I can't help but think we are not showing enough interest in the reproductive health of our young, by doing such things as providing free checks for sexually transmitted disease or free prescriptions of the Pill, as happens in Western countries. Speaking of contraception, there is also emergency contraception vital for such women as those who have been raped, for example. This contraceptive is the last line of defense against pregnancy, which it can halt if taken within 72 hours. Throughout the world, emergency contraception is regarded along the lines of "stupid not to know about it, a crime not to let people know about it." Of United Nations members, emergency contraception has been approved for use in 192 countries. Those countries that have not approved use of emergency contraception include Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea ... and Japan. I see it as my task to ask the cooperation of everyone in attendance here today to ensure that emergency contraception is approved for use here at the earliest possible moment.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me the chance to receive this award at such a wonderful ceremony as this. Thank you very much. (By Dr. Kunio Kitamura, special to the Mainichi)

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.

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