Former disarmament ambassador calls for lifting ban on arms exports

Japan Press Weekly

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Former disarmament ambassador calls for lifting ban on arms exports

Former U.N. Disarmament Ambassador Inoguchi Kuniko on October 14 urged the Kan Cabinet to lift the ban on arms exports.

At a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting, Inoguchi, who is now a Dietmember of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, called on the government to revise the Three Principles on Arms Export, saying, “Our nation’s competitiveness and productivity must be taken into consideration.”

In response to Inoguchi, Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi, who has repeatedly called for a revision of the Three Principles, said to her, “I appreciate that you have made such remarks.” Prime Minister Kan Naoto also responded by saying, “We want to include this subject in our discussion on a new national defense program.”

Inoguchi was the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament for two years from 2002.

Before being elected as LDP parliamentarian, Inoguchi spoke at a public hearing of the Lower House Research Commission of the Constitution in May 2004 and stressed the outcome of the move for small-arms disarmament as well as the importance of the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

- Akahata, October 15, 2010