Compassion for Perpetrators: Dr. Yosuke Nagai on Turning Young People in Armed Groups Into Peacebuilders

The latest episode of With Compassion traces the extraordinary story of Dr. Yosuke Nagai, who as a student in Japan decided he wanted to do something to help people starving in Somalia. That decision eventually led him into some of the world’s most violent conflict zones, where he carried compassion with him and began working with young people involved in armed groups.In this episode, Jennifer Nadel speaks with Dr. Yosuke Nagai, founder and executive director of Accept International and a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford. Yosuke shares how he went from being a first-year university student in Japan to working with young people involved in armed and extremist groups in Somalia and beyond. The conversation explores a central question for the podcast: what does compassion look like when it is extended not only to victims of violence, but also to those who have caused it? We discuss youth, trust-building, detention work, and the idea that even those labeled as threats may hold the potential to become agents of peace.

Key topics

* In this episode, Yosuke explains how the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami first pushed him into action, even before he had money, experience, or English.

* He shares how news of the 2011 famine in Somalia exposed a stark contrast: huge public sympathy and mobilization for Japan, but fear and hesitation when it came to Somalia.

* He describes how he began by reaching out to Somali students in Japan, then connected with youth leaders in Somalia and Kenya through Skype.

* Yosuke explains the early formation of Japan Somalia Youth Organization, a youth-led effort that later became Accept International in 2017.

* He recounts traveling to Mogadishu in 2013, where a suicide bombing and the death of a guide’s family member deepened his commitment to return with more knowledge and skills.

* He discusses studying conflict and peacebuilding at the London School of Economics, where he realized there was little existing guidance for dealing with non-state armed groups such as Al Shabab.

* We discuss how Accept International shifted from general youth engagement to direct work with disengaged combatants, low-risk defectors, and high-risk detainees.

* Yosuke shares his belief that prison and rehabilitation work should not treat people only as threats or labels, but should look for their unique potential and lived experience.

* He explains that trust, repeated visits, and genuine conversation are the foundation of his approach inside detention centers.

* The conversation broadens to questions of rights, adulthood, child soldiers turning 18, accountability, and why compassion must include people who have caused harm if peace is to be possible.