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Diet members from prefecture welcome foreign ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima; Chance for leaders also to visit Hiroshima

by Osamu Kido, Staff Writer

On June 26 the government announced that it had decided to hold the foreign ministers’ meeting that will take place in conjunction with the Group of Seven summit (Ise Shima summit) in Hiroshima, a move that was welcomed by Diet members from the prefecture. Some hope it will lead to a visit to Hiroshima by U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders. Others expressed the need to seek in-depth debate on the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Minoru Terada, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who represents Hiroshima District No. 5, expressed his hopes for the meeting. “I would like the foreign ministers’ meeting to be an opportunity for world leaders to visit Hiroshima one after another,” he said. Mr. Terada is head of an LDP caucus that seeks aid for atomic bomb survivors and which asked the Office of the Prime Minister to hold the ministerial talks in Hiroshima. In the near future, the caucus plans to also ask the government to call on the world leaders who will come to Japan to visit Hiroshima.

Katsuyuki Kawai, an LDP member who represents Hiroshima District No. 3, said, “How can we bring about world peace and prosperity? I think it will be very meaningful for these issues to be discussed in Hiroshima, which is respected throughout the world for its recovery from the atomic bombing.”

The content of the foreign ministers’ meeting will be reflected in the debate at the summit that will follow. Komeito member Tetsuo Saito, who represents the Chugoku Proportional Block in the House of Representatives, made reference to the failure of the review conference for the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which drew to a close in May, to issue a final document. “I would like the foreign ministers to share a common awareness of the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and take the next step toward the review conference.”

Shinji Morimoto, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan who represents Hiroshima in the House of Councilors, said, “When it comes to asking world leaders to visit Hiroshima, my stance is the same as that of the ruling parties. I would like the meeting to be meaningful.” Yoshinobu Ohira, a member of the Japanese Communist Party who represents the Chugoku Proportional Block in the House of Representatives, said, “The nuclear nations must address the desires of the A-bomb survivors and world opinion seeking the start of negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention.” He has asked the Japanese government to exercise leadership in the effort to eliminate nuclear weapons.

(Originally published on June 27, 2015)

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