BackIOI First Vice President Diane Welborn attended the 10th Anniversary of the Japanese Association for Ombudsman Studies Conference at Kansai University in Osaka on April 19, 2015. At the conference she presented a paper on “The Recent Trends of the International Ombudsman Institute.”
She added to her presentation a discussion of the work of the volunteers of The Ombudsman Office in Ohio, in order to share examples of volunteer Ombudsman assistance with the numerous Administrative Counselors in attendance at the conference, who also serve as volunteers in their local jurisdictions. Professor Kimiyoshi Toyama, President of the JAOS and member of the IOI, chaired the panel discussion. Other presenters on the panel were Mr, Arai, Director-General of the Administrative Evaluation Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication and member of the IOI, and Mr. Terutaka Tagoto, a volunteer Administrative Counselor and a Buddhist Monk. The question and answer session following the panel was lively, with questions about the recent challenges to some classical Ombudsmen by elected officials in North America, and the rationale for the establishment of Ombudsman offices in various jurisdictions of the United States. The question and answer session revealed that those who are performing the Ombudsman function in Japan are thinking deeply about the contexts and conditions of their work, and are making differential comparisons between the Japanese model and that of other members of the IOI.
Before the Conference, Ms. Welborn visited the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, where an exchange of Ombudsman practices took place with Mr. Ken Sanuki, Deputy Director-General of the Administrative Evaluation Bureau and members of his staff. Ms. Welborn presented a lecture on “Finding the Seeds of Reform in the Piles of Complaints” to the Heads of the 50 AEB Local Offices in Japan.
