Kokuta criticizes Aso for being reluctant to endorse total elimination of nuclear weapons

Japan Press Weekly

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Kokuta criticizes Aso for being reluctant to endorse total elimination of nuclear weapons

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji criticized Prime Minister Aso Taro for his reluctance to play an active role in getting nuclear weapons abolished during the recent G8 summit in Italy.

Kokuta gave this view on a political debate programs aired on two major TV networks on July 12.

He said, "The L'Aquila summit was the first G8 summit to reach agreement to move towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons. However, the Japanese prime minister never took the initiative for such efforts even though he was representing the only atomic-bombed country."

When the foreign and security policies of the Democratic Party of Japan was taken up in the discussion on the Fuji TV current affairs program, the moderator pointed out that the DPJ in 2008 called for the Japan-U.S. Status of U.S. Forces Agreement (SOFA) to be "reviewed" but that the party in its policy statement retreated to a position that the SOFA needs to be "amended" without demanding a halt to the Self-Defense Force's refueling operation in the Indian Ocean.

DPJ Vice President Maehara Seiji said, "The Japan-U.S. alliance is the primary axis of Japan's diplomacy. It is impossible to move away from it now."

Kokuta responded to Maehara by stating, "It is wrong to look at world affairs only through perspective of the Japan-U.S. alliance. It is important to place greater emphasis on increasing better relations with Asian countries based on the (war-renouncing) Japanese Constitution."

- Akahata, July 13, 2009