Japan Press Weekly

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2024 July 10 - 16 [PEACE]

Number of signatures calling for Japan’s participation in antinuke UN treaty exceeds 1.56 million

Hibakusha and antinuke organizations on July 11 held a rally in the House of Representatives members’ office building to hand the Foreign Ministry a fourth batch of signatures of 147,918 (1,565, 317 in total) calling on the Japanese government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

Representative director of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) Takakusaki Hiroshi criticized the government for refusing to participate in the TPNW under the pretext of a supposed “severe security environment” around Japan while appealing the need to “abolish nuclear weapons” in the international arena. Furthermore, Takakusaki pointed out that Japan with its huge military buildup policy helps enhance the U.S. nuclear strategic posture. He said to a Foreign Ministry bureaucrat in charge of disarmament, Hayashi Mitsuko, “It is unacceptable for the government to take the general public to the brink of a nuclear war.”

A signature-drive promoter, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) executive official Kawasaki Akira, said that the risk of nuclear-weapon use is increasing. An assistant secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), Kodama Michiko, demanded that the Japanese government share with the world the testimonies of A-bomb survivors.

Dietmembers, including those of the Japanese Communist Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, delivered speeches in solidarity.

Past related article:
> Hibakusha submit more than 1.1 million signatures calling for Japan’s participation in TPNW [April 13, 2024]