Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 20 - 26 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

JCP Shii meets Prime Minister Aso to request that Japan take the initiative in launching international talks

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on May 20 met with Prime Minister Aso Taro in the Diet Building and requested that the government display its initiative to start international negotiations on the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Shii told Aso that he received a letter from the U.S. government expressing thanks to a letter he sent to U.S. President Barack Obama calling on him to take the initiative for eliminating nuclear weapons in connection with his speech in Prague in April stating that achieving a “world without nuclear weapons” is a national goal of the United States.

Shii quoted the reply as saying, “We appreciate your passion for this issue and look forward to working with the Government of Japan to make concrete progress towards this goal.”

Shii requested that Aso, on behalf of the government of the only atomic bombed country, exercise the initiative to call on the international community to hold talks focusing on ways to abolish nuclear weapons.

He emphasized, “As the only A-bombed nation, the Japanese government has a moral responsibility and obligation to act to reach this end.”

Referring to President Obama’s Prague speech, Aso stated, “I find it the greatest speech ever given by a U.S. president. I think that its major significance lies in the fact that it was the first call for a world without nuclear weapons to be made by a nuclear-weapons state.”

As regards Shii’s call on Aso to display the Japanese government’s initiative for the abolition of nuclear weapons, Aso said that it is not easy to make progress toward the goal unless the issue of North Korea’s nuclear program is resolved.

Shii said, “It may be true that urging North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program is a pressing task. However, also in achieving this goal, the Japanese government is called upon to take the lead in the international community to completely ban nuclear weapons without delay. Once this is achieved, it will greatly help to dissolve the North Korea issue.”

The JCP chair reiterated the need for the Japanese government to take the lead in calling on all governments of the world to assemble for the cause of the total ban on nuclear weapons.