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2015 December 9 - 15 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Anti-nuke citizens protest against conclusion of Japan-India nuclear cooperation agreement

The international environment NGO Friends of the Earth Japan and other anti-nuke groups on December 12 held a rally in front of the Prime Minister’s Office to protest against the conclusion of the Japan-India nuclear cooperation agreement which enables Japan to export nuclear reactors and related technology to India.

Mitsuta Kanna of FoE Japan said to the participants that to sell nuclear technology to India, a non-member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), would undermine the NPT framework and support the country in a nuclear arms race. She also said that anti-nuke activists in India are violently suppressed and that some of them were killed in crackdowns. Mitsuta argued that the latest bilateral agreement could be seen as Japan’s approval to such actions.

On the same day in India, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to conclude a nuclear cooperation treaty. This is the first nuclear deal Japan has made with a non NPT country.

India in 1998 conducted its first nuclear test and as of January 2015 possesses 90-110 atomic weapons, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Japan’s export of nuclear technology would help India further develop its nuclear weapons program and lead to abandonment of Japan’s moral responsibility to oppose nuclear weapons as the only country that experienced the devastation from atomic bombings.

In the summit meeting, PM Abe reportedly told his Indian counterpart that Japan will suspend the agreement if India conducts a nuclear test. However, no matter whether India promised to not conduct further nuclear test, it is unacceptable to allow India to develop more advanced nuclear weapons.

Japan experienced the Fukushima nuclear meltdown four years ago and has yet to succeed in bringing the crippled nuclear power plant back under control. It is totally inappropriate for the only A-bombed country to promote nuclear technology exports to nuclear weapons states in compliance with the demand from domestic nuclear reactor manufacturers.