Association for a Non-Nuclear Government urges government to play role in promoting abolition of nuclear weapons at U.N.

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Association for a Non-Nuclear Government urges government to play role in promoting abolition of nuclear weapons at U.N.

Representatives of the Association for a Non-Nuclear Government visited the Foreign Ministry on September 16 and requested that the Japanese government play a positive role in the quest for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the 63rd U.N. General Assembly, which opened on the same day.

The Association’s representative Masuda Yoshinobu pointed out that the current session of the U.N. General Assembly is crucial in making the next NPT Review Conference in 2010 a turning point to make progress in the effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The Association called on the government to: (1) take a lead in the adoption of a U.N. General Assembly resolution calling the start of negotiations aimed at concluding an international treaty banning nuclear weapons; (2) strongly call on nuclear weapon states to reconfirm their obligation to get rid of nuclear weapons and accelerate their effort to fulfill this goal and, (3) internationally declare that Japan will adhere to its Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to possess, manufacture, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought in).

Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs Shibayama Masahiko said, “We take the Association’s request seriously. Japan is qualified to call on other countries to not turn the clock back.” However, he also repeated the stated government view concerning the abolition of nuclear weapons, that it is important to set a process accepted by nuclear weapon states.

Japanese Communist Party House of Representatives member Kasai Akira attended the representations to the ministry as a coordinator of the Association.

- Akahata, September 18, 2008