Kishida to attend NPT review conference as first Japan prime minister in history and declare on August 1 his resolve to achieve “world without nuclear weapons”
Jun. 11, 2022
by Koji Higuchi, Staff Writer
On June 10, it was learned that coordination has begun for Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (representing Hiroshima Prefecture’s District No. 1) to attend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which will be held in August at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. According to a government official, the most likely scenario has Mr. Kishida speaking on August 1, the opening day of the conference on which delegates from each nation will express their positions. To achieve “a world without nuclear weapons,” a goal he has advocated as prime minister from the A-bombed city of Hiroshima, Mr. Kishida is expected to announce his determination to move the effort forward.
The NPT is an international conference in which nuclear and non-nuclear weapons nations collaborate in seeking out a path for nuclear disarmament. Typically, the conference is attended by representatives at the governmental cabinet or agency levels. If Mr. Kishida were to attend the conference, he would be the first prime minister from Japan to do so. Having announced publicly that achieving a world without nuclear weapons is his life’s work, Mr. Kishida previously placed an emphasis on discussions involving nuclear weapons nations. In 2015 at the last NPT review conference, Mr. Kishida attended as Japan’s minister of foreign affairs, communicating the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of his home of Hiroshima, among other points of interest.
In the address at the upcoming conference, he is expected to indicate the risk presented by the NPT framework being weakened due to the threatened use of nuclear weapons by Russia, one of the NPT member states. Mr. Kishida is likely to call on the global community to return to the origins of the NPT, which imposes on nuclear states an obligation to make efforts for nuclear disarmament.
Mr. Kishida is also expected to emphasize the importance of visits by heads of states to the A-bombed city of Hiroshima, in anticipation of the 2023 G7 summit meeting (attended by Group of Seven industrialized nations) in Hiroshima, for which he will serve as chair, and an international group of eminent persons conference, for which world political leaders will gather in Hiroshima sometime later this year.
For the NPT review conference, Minoru Terada, a second-generation A-bomb survivor who represents Hiroshima Prefecture’s District No. 5 and serves as a special assistant responsible for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues in Prime Minister Kishida’s Cabinet, will accompany Mr. Kishida. During the conference period through August 26, Mr. Terada will be engaged in negotiations with other nations to create a conference agreement, playing a leading role as a representative of the government of the A-bombed nation of Japan.
The NPT review conference is held in principle every five years. In 2000, the conference took a major step forward toward the goal of nuclear disarmament as it adopted an agreement on unequivocal commitment by the nuclear weapons states for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. In recent years, however, conference discussions have become stalled on that issue. At the last conference in 2015, negotiations broke down against the backdrop of a nuclear Iran and other issues, resulting in failure to adopt a final agreement at the conclusion of the conference. This review conference was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed four times due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the decision to convene the meeting this summer.
(Originally published on June 11, 2022)
On June 10, it was learned that coordination has begun for Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (representing Hiroshima Prefecture’s District No. 1) to attend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference, which will be held in August at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. According to a government official, the most likely scenario has Mr. Kishida speaking on August 1, the opening day of the conference on which delegates from each nation will express their positions. To achieve “a world without nuclear weapons,” a goal he has advocated as prime minister from the A-bombed city of Hiroshima, Mr. Kishida is expected to announce his determination to move the effort forward.
The NPT is an international conference in which nuclear and non-nuclear weapons nations collaborate in seeking out a path for nuclear disarmament. Typically, the conference is attended by representatives at the governmental cabinet or agency levels. If Mr. Kishida were to attend the conference, he would be the first prime minister from Japan to do so. Having announced publicly that achieving a world without nuclear weapons is his life’s work, Mr. Kishida previously placed an emphasis on discussions involving nuclear weapons nations. In 2015 at the last NPT review conference, Mr. Kishida attended as Japan’s minister of foreign affairs, communicating the devastation caused by the atomic bombing of his home of Hiroshima, among other points of interest.
In the address at the upcoming conference, he is expected to indicate the risk presented by the NPT framework being weakened due to the threatened use of nuclear weapons by Russia, one of the NPT member states. Mr. Kishida is likely to call on the global community to return to the origins of the NPT, which imposes on nuclear states an obligation to make efforts for nuclear disarmament.
Mr. Kishida is also expected to emphasize the importance of visits by heads of states to the A-bombed city of Hiroshima, in anticipation of the 2023 G7 summit meeting (attended by Group of Seven industrialized nations) in Hiroshima, for which he will serve as chair, and an international group of eminent persons conference, for which world political leaders will gather in Hiroshima sometime later this year.
For the NPT review conference, Minoru Terada, a second-generation A-bomb survivor who represents Hiroshima Prefecture’s District No. 5 and serves as a special assistant responsible for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues in Prime Minister Kishida’s Cabinet, will accompany Mr. Kishida. During the conference period through August 26, Mr. Terada will be engaged in negotiations with other nations to create a conference agreement, playing a leading role as a representative of the government of the A-bombed nation of Japan.
The NPT review conference is held in principle every five years. In 2000, the conference took a major step forward toward the goal of nuclear disarmament as it adopted an agreement on unequivocal commitment by the nuclear weapons states for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. In recent years, however, conference discussions have become stalled on that issue. At the last conference in 2015, negotiations broke down against the backdrop of a nuclear Iran and other issues, resulting in failure to adopt a final agreement at the conclusion of the conference. This review conference was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed four times due to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in the decision to convene the meeting this summer.
(Originally published on June 11, 2022)
