JCP Dietmember demands military abandon cluster bombs

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Koizumi Chikashi used his question-time in parliament to demand that the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) abandon its arsenal of cluster bombs.

In an Upper House committee meeting on April 22, JCP Koizumi pointed out that cluster bomb duds become landmines, and said, "On what grounds does the SDF with its exclusively defense-oriented policy possess weapons of indiscriminate killing?"

Defense Agency Director General Ishiba Shigeru tried to justify the SDF's possession of such weapons by saying, "56 countries in the world have cluster bombs and the danger from dud cluster bombs is very small."

From the government spending on cluster bombs during the past 16 years, JCP Koizumi estimated that the number of these bombs Japan possesses is somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000, but the defense chief avoided giving the precise number.

The previous day, the New Japan Women's Association sent a written request to Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro and the Defense Agency director general calling for cluster bombs to be abandoned.

The Japan Peace Committee demanded that the defense chief announce the number and locations of cluster bombs. (end)