7.6 million signatures for N-free world submitted to Diet

Japan Press Weekly

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7.6 million signatures for N-free world submitted to Diet

The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) on October 22 submitted to the Diet a petition signed by 7.59 million people calling for a nuclear weapons-free world.

The signatures include 1,522 municipal heads and assembly chairpersons.

The petition urges all the governments of the world, including nuclear weapons states, to promptly start negotiations on an international treaty banning nuclear weapons and reach a conclusion.

The Japan Gensuikyo made representations to Prime Minister Kan Naoto and Foreign Minister Maehara Seiji to request that all-out efforts be made to start the negotiations.

Japan Gensuikyo Secretary General Taka Hiroshi said, "When we visited the U.N. Headquarters in May, then NPT Review Conference President Libran Cabactulan told us, 'To respond to your desire for establishing a world without nuclear weapons is the present duty international politics must fulfill.' We will further increase our role in the effort to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the world."

- Akahata, October 23, 2010