Japan Press Weekly

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2012 September 19 - 25 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

US nuclear test arouses protests from various organizations

As the U.S. government on September 18 made public that it had conducted a new type of subcritical nuclear test between April and June, antinuclear groups in Japan raised a loud voice of protest against the test.

It was the 5th experiment of its kind carried out under the Obama administration, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Nagasaki City Mayor Taue Tomihisa, chairman of the National Council of Japan Nuclear Free Local Authorities, on September 19 sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John V. Roos in protest against the nuclear testing.

The Japan Council against A&H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo), the Association for a Non-nuclear Government, and the New Japan Women's Association (NJWA) sent their letters of protest to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Japan Gensuikyo in its statement criticized the nuclear experiment as contradicting the agreement at the 2010 NPT Review Conference which calls for “a world free of nuclear weapons”.

In Hiroshima, the Hiroshima Council against A & H Bombs (Hiroshima Gensuikyo) and the Hiroshima Federation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organization (Hiroshima Hidankyo) on September 20 jointly held a sit-in protest in front of the A-bomb Cenotaph with the participation of 45 people, including A-bomb survivors.