World conference on Article 9 will be held in May

   Peace activists from around the world will hold an international conference on May 4-6 in Chiba, east of Tokyo, to discuss the global significance of the war renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. Workshops on peace issues, concerts, and other events are being planned.

   At a news conference in Tokyo on February 22, the Organizing Committee for the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War announced the outline of the world conference.

   Mairead Corrigan-Maguire (Northern Ireland), the Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1976, and Cora Weiss (U.S.), president of the 1999 Hague Appeal for Peace, will give the keynote speeches.

   Ikeda Kayoko, co-chair of the Organizing Committee and translator, said, “John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ expresses the idea of Article 9. I hope that participants in the world conference will discuss the need for Article 9 to be shared throughout the world.”
- Akahata, February 23, 2008