Ogata meets with Venezuelan ambassador

Japan Press Weekly

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

Ogata meets with Venezuelan ambassador

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo on May 18 met with Venezuelan Ambassador to Japan Seiko Luis Ishikawa Kobayashi in Tokyo to explain the letter JCP Chair Shii Kazuo sent to U.S. President Barack Obama calling for the start of negotiations on an international agreement to abolish nuclear weapons.

Ishikawa, who had read the letter, stated, "It is a timely and extremely important call, and is very persuasive because this is the proposal of the party which has devoted itself in atomic-bombed Japan to get nuclear weapons abolished."

Ogata asked Ishikawa to convey what the letter calls for to the Venezuelan government and the governing party of United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Ishikawa expressed his gratitude to Fuwa Tetsuzo, director of the JCP Social Sciences Institute, for his participation in a meeting held in early April in Tokyo between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Japanese academics. He also touched upon budding new relationships between Latin American countries and the U.S. Obama administration.

- Akahata May 19, 2009