Nihon Hidankyo on Wednesday expressed disappointment at being unable to discuss Japan¡¯s possible participation as an observer to a U.N. conference on banning nuclear weapons during their 30-minute meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
In his opening remarks, Ishiba congratulated the atomic bomb survivors¡¯ group on winning the Nobel Peace Prize and thanked them for ¡°long years of hard work¡± and their ¡°extremely meaningful¡± activism, while maintaining that Japan must defend itself against threats from China, Russia and North Korea.
¡°It was rather like the Prime Minister¡¯s solo performance,¡± said 92-year-old Terumi Tanaka, a survivor of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and one of the co-chairs of the grassroots group.
The meeting showed how ¡°the government has a completely different agenda¡± from Nihon Hidankyo, and the group ¡°would rather not meet at all if talks are half-hearted,¡± Tanaka said. ¡°There was no time for Hidankyo to thoroughly express its demands,¡± he added.
The conference of signatories to the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will be held in New York in March.
Ishiba¡¯s silence on the issue comes after he signaled in October that his government will ¡°seriously consider¡± participating as an observer.
Japan relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella while simultaneously advocating for a ban on such weapons.
Minoru Terada, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who represents a Lower House district in Hiroshima Prefecture, also attended the meeting. He told reporters that he had called on Ishiba, who came ¡°on the premise that he won¡¯t enter discussions on national security today,¡± to commit to nuclear disarmament.
¡°Prime Minister Ishiba said that amid a very tense geopolitical climate, where all of Japan¡¯s surrounding nations have nuclear weapons, the current situation cannot be helped. But he hopes to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons in the future,¡± Terada said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that Japan will have to consider how to balance its ¡°responsibility as the sole country to be attacked by nuclear weapons¡± and response to ¡°threats to national security.¡±
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