Editorial: One year after TPNW enters into force, why won’t the A-bombed nation of Japan participate in meeting as observer?
Jan. 22, 2022
Nuclear weapons and human beings cannot coexist. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), embodying the hopes of A-bomb survivors, entered into force one year ago today, January 22. With ratification by 59 nations and regions, the First Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW is scheduled to be held in March.
Despite its tragic experience in the atomic bombings, Japan is not one of the TPNW’s signatory nations. Japan’s government has turned its back on the treaty and will not participate in the meeting as an observer, let alone sign or ratify it.
Japan’s government may be trying to read the mood of the United States. But Japan should not put itself in a situation that demands it constantly humor its ally.
Nuclear powers such as China and Russia continue to put effort into building up their militaries. Will the world continue to be manipulated by the attitudes of such nuclear powers, which only seem to care about themselves, or can a brake be applied to that situation? The international community is at a crossroads.
Plans for holding Group of Eminent Persons Conference in Hiroshima
Japan must assertively make an appeal to the world regarding the fact that the abolition of nuclear weapons is imperative for the continued existence of all humankind.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, elected as a representative of the A-bombed city, has declared his life’s work to be the realization of a “world without nuclear weapons.” He needs to act as quickly as possible to achieve that ideal.
Naturally, he is not sitting idly by and doing nothing. To be sure, Mr. Kishida is working on the issue more aggressively than the previous administrations headed by Mr. Shinzo Abe and Mr. Yoshihide Suga.
One example was the prime minister’s announcement in his policy speech on January 17, of his idea to form an “international group of eminent persons conference” aimed at the abolition of nuclear weapons. His intent seems to be to further enhance the quality and quantity of the Group of Eminent Persons Conference, consisting of leaders from Japan and overseas and established in 2017 by then Mr. Kishida when he served as Japan’s foreign minister. Imagining the participation of political leaders from various nations, including former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Kishida hopes to hold the inaugural meeting of the international group in Hiroshima in the first half of this year.
Japan and United States issue joint statement
Japan’s stance of placing the highest priority on its relationship with the United States took the form of a joint statement issued by the two countries, announced yesterday, confirming the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a foundation for nuclear disarmament. The joint statement called for political leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it did not make reference to the TPNW ban treaty.
Recently, leaders of five nuclear weapon states, including the United States, issued a joint statement in which they declared that avoiding nuclear war was their “ultimate obligation.” Japan’s national government must urge the heads of those nations to act in accordance with their own statement using every means possible, including by extending an invitation to Hiroshima, to ensure the leaders take on the task of reducing nuclear weapons.
The “Doomsday Clock,” which symbolically indicates the time remaining until the end of the world, is announced yearly in a U.S. scientific journal, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. As of the day before yesterday, the clock showed 100 seconds remaining, the closest time to midnight for the third year running. Recognition is now necessary of our current harsh reality, including the global climate crisis.
There will always be risk so long as nuclear weapons exist. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry has long stressed the commonality of his thinking, based on his own experiences, with that of A-bomb survivors. The United States went to the brink of nuclear war at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. During the Cold War period, according to Mr. Perry, warning systems to detect an enemy attack malfunctioned at least three times in the United States and two times in the former Soviet Union.
The world has been able to live in peace not because of the existence of nuclear weapons. We have simply been lucky enough to avoid nuclear war despite the existence of such weapons. And, there is no guarantee that the luck will continue to hold.
Mr. Kishida’s turn to make decision
Mr. Perry has stressed that humans are prone to making mistakes and machines to breaking down. We need to take heed of his words. The abolition of nuclear weapons is the only way to completely eliminate risk.
In Japan, more than 600 local assemblies have submitted written opinions to the national government demanding that the nation join and ratify the TPNW. Mr. Kishida should lend his ear to those voices and reconsider Japan’s attitude toward the treaty. If he regards as a problem the absence of participating nuclear weapon states in the treaty, Japan should become a member first and then work hard to persuade others to join the TPNW.
In the past, then Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi resolved that Japan would join the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Later, then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda determined that the country would become a member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The United States, China, and other world powers were opposed to the conventions, but the two government officials made their own decisions over objections from within the government, in consideration of international public opinion and from a humanitarian viewpoint.
Now it is Prime Minister Kishida’s turn. If he truly aims to abolish nuclear weapons, he should begin by making the decision to attend the meeting of States Parties to the TPNW as an observer. That is truly his obligation as the prime minister of the A-bombed nation of Japan.
(Originally published on January 22, 2022)
Despite its tragic experience in the atomic bombings, Japan is not one of the TPNW’s signatory nations. Japan’s government has turned its back on the treaty and will not participate in the meeting as an observer, let alone sign or ratify it.
Japan’s government may be trying to read the mood of the United States. But Japan should not put itself in a situation that demands it constantly humor its ally.
Nuclear powers such as China and Russia continue to put effort into building up their militaries. Will the world continue to be manipulated by the attitudes of such nuclear powers, which only seem to care about themselves, or can a brake be applied to that situation? The international community is at a crossroads.
Plans for holding Group of Eminent Persons Conference in Hiroshima
Japan must assertively make an appeal to the world regarding the fact that the abolition of nuclear weapons is imperative for the continued existence of all humankind.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, elected as a representative of the A-bombed city, has declared his life’s work to be the realization of a “world without nuclear weapons.” He needs to act as quickly as possible to achieve that ideal.
Naturally, he is not sitting idly by and doing nothing. To be sure, Mr. Kishida is working on the issue more aggressively than the previous administrations headed by Mr. Shinzo Abe and Mr. Yoshihide Suga.
One example was the prime minister’s announcement in his policy speech on January 17, of his idea to form an “international group of eminent persons conference” aimed at the abolition of nuclear weapons. His intent seems to be to further enhance the quality and quantity of the Group of Eminent Persons Conference, consisting of leaders from Japan and overseas and established in 2017 by then Mr. Kishida when he served as Japan’s foreign minister. Imagining the participation of political leaders from various nations, including former U.S. President Barack Obama and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Kishida hopes to hold the inaugural meeting of the international group in Hiroshima in the first half of this year.
Japan and United States issue joint statement
Japan’s stance of placing the highest priority on its relationship with the United States took the form of a joint statement issued by the two countries, announced yesterday, confirming the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a foundation for nuclear disarmament. The joint statement called for political leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but it did not make reference to the TPNW ban treaty.
Recently, leaders of five nuclear weapon states, including the United States, issued a joint statement in which they declared that avoiding nuclear war was their “ultimate obligation.” Japan’s national government must urge the heads of those nations to act in accordance with their own statement using every means possible, including by extending an invitation to Hiroshima, to ensure the leaders take on the task of reducing nuclear weapons.
The “Doomsday Clock,” which symbolically indicates the time remaining until the end of the world, is announced yearly in a U.S. scientific journal, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. As of the day before yesterday, the clock showed 100 seconds remaining, the closest time to midnight for the third year running. Recognition is now necessary of our current harsh reality, including the global climate crisis.
There will always be risk so long as nuclear weapons exist. Former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry has long stressed the commonality of his thinking, based on his own experiences, with that of A-bomb survivors. The United States went to the brink of nuclear war at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. During the Cold War period, according to Mr. Perry, warning systems to detect an enemy attack malfunctioned at least three times in the United States and two times in the former Soviet Union.
The world has been able to live in peace not because of the existence of nuclear weapons. We have simply been lucky enough to avoid nuclear war despite the existence of such weapons. And, there is no guarantee that the luck will continue to hold.
Mr. Kishida’s turn to make decision
Mr. Perry has stressed that humans are prone to making mistakes and machines to breaking down. We need to take heed of his words. The abolition of nuclear weapons is the only way to completely eliminate risk.
In Japan, more than 600 local assemblies have submitted written opinions to the national government demanding that the nation join and ratify the TPNW. Mr. Kishida should lend his ear to those voices and reconsider Japan’s attitude toward the treaty. If he regards as a problem the absence of participating nuclear weapon states in the treaty, Japan should become a member first and then work hard to persuade others to join the TPNW.
In the past, then Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi resolved that Japan would join the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Later, then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda determined that the country would become a member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The United States, China, and other world powers were opposed to the conventions, but the two government officials made their own decisions over objections from within the government, in consideration of international public opinion and from a humanitarian viewpoint.
Now it is Prime Minister Kishida’s turn. If he truly aims to abolish nuclear weapons, he should begin by making the decision to attend the meeting of States Parties to the TPNW as an observer. That is truly his obligation as the prime minister of the A-bombed nation of Japan.
(Originally published on January 22, 2022)
