Japan Press Weekly

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2016 February 24 - March 1 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Citizens’ groups hold rally to oppose Japan-India nuclear energy deal

Anti-nuke citizens’ groups on February 25 held a rally in Tokyo to oppose the government move to conclude a Japan-India nuclear energy agreement.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in December 2015 during his visit to India agreed with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a bilateral deal that will allow Japan to export nuclear power generation technologies to the nation.

India, a non-member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, carried out nuclear weapons tests in 1974 and again in 1998. After New Delhi announced that it had succeeded in developing nuclear weapons, the international society imposed an embargo on nuclear-related technologies exports to the country.

At the rally, Fukunaga Masaaki of the Center for South Asian Studies at Gifu Women’s University explained about problems associated with the Japan-India nuclear deal.

Fukunaga said that the U.S. and India in 2008 established a nuclear accord and that other western powers changed their positions and lifted their ban on trade of nuclear technologies with India

Pointing out that India’s military facilities will remain outside of the international framework of nuclear inspection, Fukunaga said, “Japan concluding a nuclear agreement with India is tantamount to giving approval to both India’s nuclear weapons buildup and its promotion of nuclear power generation.”