The forum could not be more timely, as Japan's Self Defense Forces joins the reconstruction efforts in Iraq in a very challenging environment. The considerable task facing these troops, as well as other countries' forces and international and non-governmental organizations, will be debated by experts with experience of rebuilding in war-torn regions such as Afghanistan, Western Africa, the Balkans, East Timor and Iraq.

The forum will bring together a diverse group of politicians, EU and UN representatives, scholars, NGO and media representatives as well as members of the public. Participants will include Francesc Vendrell, the European Union's Special Representative in Afghanistan; Masatoshi Abe, Senior Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan; Yasushi Akashi, Chairman of the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention; and Alex Boraine, President of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Discussions will focus on issues related to education, peace-building, reconciliation, democratic governance and development in post-conflict societies.

The conference will be simultaneously translated into Japanese and English.

The EU-UNU Tokyo Global Forum is being organized by the Delegation of the European Commission in Japan and UNU, with support from the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme. It will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, 5 February, in the U Thant Conference Hall of UN House. Please see the attached programme for details.

A press briefing will be held on the 3 February at 11:00 in Committee Room 2 of the UNU, where Mr. Etienne Reuter (Head of Press, Public and Cultural Affairs, Delegation of the European Commission in Japan) and Professor Yozo Yokota (Special Adviser to the Rector, United Nations University) will be available to answer questions.

Media representatives are cordially invited to attend the press briefing and the conference. To attend the press briefing please contact the UNU Public Affairs Section (Tel. 03-5467-1243; Fax 03-3406-7346).

To register for the conference please use the attached fax reply sheet (Fax: 03-3499-2828) or email to Forum@hq.unu.edu. For further details about the forum, please contact Etienne Reuter (Tel: 03-3239-0461), Dominique Inoue (Tel: 03-3239-0464) or Miwako Suetsune (Tel: 03-3239-0430). The conference homepage is at: www.unu.edu/p&g/eu/