Association for Non-nuclear Government representatives meet with foreign minister

The Association for a Non-Nuclear Government says the Japanese government should truly represent the earnest non-nuclear voice of the only atomic bombed country and take the initiative in achieving the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Representing the association, Masuda Yoshinobu (meteorologist) and Fujita Isamu (professor emeritus of Tokyo University), visited Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko at the Foreign Ministry on July 27.

They said that the Japanese government should demand that the U.S. government revoke its "preemptive nuclear attack" policy in its "Nuclear Posture Review," and that the nuclear weapons possessing countries implement their promise to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, a promise they made at the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty review conference in 2000.

Referring to the recent problematic statement by the chief cabinet secretary that the Three Non-Nuclear Principles may be altered, the representatives demanded that the Japanese government firmly maintain the principles into the future and stop accounting on a U.S. nuclear deterrent.

Kawaguchi stated that the Three Non-Nuclear Principles would be defended as a national policy but declined to comment on the U.S. "Nuclear Posture Review" on the grounds that "it's not a matter to be dealt with by the Japanese government."

She also said, "Given the massive existence of nuclear and conventional weapons, it would not be appropriate to do away with nuclear weapons because the need now is to maintain a balance."