June 29, 2018

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo spoke at the 2018 conference of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space held on June 22-24 in Oxford, United Kingdom.

The conference was attended by participants from more than ten countries. They exchanged their views and experiences regarding various events in the past year, such as the adoption of the UN treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons and the U.S.-North Korea summit meeting. The meeting participants also discussed ways to stop the use of space for military purposes.

Ogata in his speech said that it is increasingly important to increase public support for the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty in order to have more countries ratify the treaty. He called for further global efforts for the Hibakusha-led anti-nuke signature-collection campaign as a way to influence the Japanese government and other nations’ governments that refuse to sign the treaty. In the signature campaign, more than 5.1 million signatures have been collected.

Ogata underscored the significance of the U.S.-North Korea and inter-Korean summit meetings. He explained the JCP proposal for peace in northeast Asia and appealed for public support for further peace building efforts.

In addition, Ogata said that the Abe government seeks to set up a command for space and cyber defense and to promote the militarization of space in collaboration with the U.S. military. He went on to say that the JCP and peace movement activists are working hard to oppose Abe’s military buildup.

Other participants at the conference expressed their intent to fully support in the Hibakusha-led international signature collection campaign.

Past related article:
> Ogata speaks at international meeting opposing expansion of military buildup in outer space [April 13, 2017]