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Hiroshima mayor to attend U.N. working group, urge leaders to visit Hiroshima

The City of Hiroshima officially announced on April 21 that Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui will attend the second meeting of the United Nations working group, which opens on May 2 in Geneva, Switzerland. At this meeting to discuss nuclear disarmament, Mr. Matsui will urge leaders of nations to visit Hiroshima and to legally ban nuclear arms.

Mr. Matsui, Yasuyoshi Komizo, the chairperson of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, and two others will visit Geneva between April 30 and May 5. Mr. Matsui will deliver a speech on May 3, the second day of the meeting. He will refer to the recent visit to Hiroshima by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Mr. Kerry visited the Peace Memorial Park and expressed his view that leaders should pursue a world free from nuclear weapons. Mr. Matsui will call on the heads of nations to exercise leadership in advancing the abolition of nuclear arms.

On May 1, Mr. Matsui will attend a meeting organized by a non-governmental organization. During his stay in Geneva, he will exchange views with officials of the U.N. and national governments. On May 2, he will give seedlings from a ginkgo tree that survived the atomic bombing to the U.N. Office at Geneva, where the working group meeting is held.

The five major nuclear powers, including the United States, did not attend the first meeting of the U.N. working group held in February. Mayors for Peace, for which Mr. Matsui serves as president, will send an open letter to the member nations urging them to take part in the working group. The organization sent similar letters in January which urged them to participate.

(Originally published on April 22, 2016)

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