Tanka poems against the war

Capital city Reykjavik

  Do you know a small island country in the North Atlantic, the Republic of Iceland? It is a country of glaciers and volcanoes with population of about 300,000, which has overcome the crisis of financial collapse of 2008 and is rebuilding its economy. In 2016 Iceland gained the 7th world highest income of the per capita, in addition, it ranked the first on the world gender gap index,  the most peaceful country in the world and the third world happiest country. Moreover, Iceland supplies almost all of the domestic power demand from the hydroelectric and geothermal energy, and all of these sound to me like a "social fairy country."

   Who on earth created such a wonderful country? Iceland had been on my mind for a long time and I finally visited the country in March, and talked with parliamentarians, supporters of civic political parties, young people, and ordinary people, looking for an answer. Although it was a short stay of ten days, I feel that I somehow found the outline of the answer. It is democracy rooted in each citizen, in other words, a spirit of "I am important, you are also important, both you and me are fellows living in our homeland, Iceland."

Iceland Parliament Building

   Although it was hardly reported in Japan, after the financial collapse in 2008, the people of Iceland surrounded the Parliament calling for a referendum. They were shouting, "Why should we, citizens take over the debts of some 3.5 billion euros made by some bankers? Collapse the banks!" At that time in the world, many banks had huge losses, and many governments, especially in the United States and Europe, relieved them with tax money so that the banks would not collapse. However, the citizens of Iceland posed NO! to such policies. They refused to take over the debts and maintained their social welfare which many other countries sacrificed for repaying debts.

   This amazing measure was made possible by Icelandic people's continuing appeals of the demonstrations and rallies. Their voice finally made the Prime Minister resign and referendums implemented. It was tenacious people's activity to protect their lives, and it showed that Iceland is the country not for some wealthy and powerful people but for ordinary people.


    Those Icelandic people who realized the importance of people's participation to the government formed a new political party.  The name is "Pirate Party" and  was  formed in 2012 in order to take back power from a handful of powerful people to citizens, and as of 2017, ten out of 63 members of the Parliament are members of the Pirate Party. It is a huge break- through.

   I visited the Pirate Party headquarters and I had some opportunities to talk with party officials, party members, supporters, including one of the party founders, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, who is also a parliamentarian. I told them how amazing the progress of Pirate party had been and how difficult it could be for citizens to make new political parties in Japan.
   Then they said:
"To make a civic party, firstly hold town meetings in every single town in the country."
" If you ask people to join the town meeting and learn new ideas and policies, people will come to listen to them. If they think that it is a good idea, they will support you."
"When everyone cooperates, there is no problem that we can not overcome. So you have to understand the problem clearly, and present your idea to let them work on it together."

   While listening to these words, I thought that the people in Iceland really trust one another. "If you talk seriously, people listen, then you can work together to solve the problem." This must be the spirit of Iceland, and I strongly feel that Iceland is the country of their own.


   In the small country with a population of about 300,000, people live trusting one another and cooperating with each other. They are running the country not for some powerful people but for ordinary people to protect the lives of their own. The trip to Iceland taught me the fundamentals of democracy.

With Birgitta at Pirate Party Headquarters