Japan Press Weekly

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2014 April 9 - 15 [PEACE]

War-renouncing Article 9 gets nomination for Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo in Norway has recently informed a citizens’ movement group that it nominated the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution as a candidate for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

A campaign for making Article 9 a Nobel Peace Prize recipient came from an idea of a woman living in Zama City in Kanagawa Prefecture.

In cooperation with the woman, local Article 9 Associations in Kanagawa’s Zama and Sagamihara cities in August last year established a group to work on the campaign and launched a signature-collection drive for that purpose. The group has collected signatures through the Internet and in the streets.

The Nobel Prize awards are bestowed only upon individuals and organizations, so the group called on the Nobel Prize Committee to include in a peace prize nominees’ list the Japanese people protecting Article 9 of the Constitution.

Ochiai Masayuki of a local A9A in Zama City said, “What I want to do is to protect Article 9. I hope that the nomination for the Nobel Prize attracts public attention to the war-renouncing provision of the Constitution, which will encourage people’s movements opposing constitutional revision.”

The Nobel Prize Committee will release the name of its choice from 278 candidates nominated for the peace prize on October 10.