The Japanese government should join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

 ``The Japanese government should join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons''

A-bomb survivors' group "NPT is dysfunctional"

　The Japanese NGO Liaison Committee for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons, made up of the Japan Council of Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb Victims' Organizations (Hidankyo), issued a statement saying, "At a time when the NPT is in a dysfunctional state, we should consider joining the Nuclear Ban Treaty, which stipulates that nuclear weapons are an absolute evil. We need more support," he said.

Prime Minister ``Maintaining and strengthening the NPT system is the realistic path''

　The Japanese government is consistently negative about the nuclear ban treaty, arguing that the five nuclear-armed nations of the United States, Britain, France, China, and Russia are not participating. Taking the position that strengthening the NPT regime is important, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when asked about his response to the Nuclear Ban Treaty on the 27th after the NPT regime broke down, said, "Do you think that maintaining and strengthening the NPT regime is the realistic way to go? It doesn't change at all," he replied.

Kenichi Okubo, co-representative of the Liaison Committee and chairman of the Japan Anti-Nuclear Lawyers Association, said at an online press conference on the 29th, "The prime minister says, ``The denial of deterrence puts the lives and property of the people in danger.'' I don't know when the prime minister's lifework will come true." He insisted on joining the nuclear ban treaty.

◆High school students collecting signatures: "Japan, who knows how terrifying it is, says 'Let's stop nuclear weapons.'"

　Kosuke Sato (17), a third-year student at Daito Gakuen High School, participates in the Tokyo High School Peace Seminar, one of the groups that submitted about 13,000 signatures to the government this month calling for the signing and ratification of the Nuclear Ban Treaty. ) told an interviewer, "I wanted Japan, the only country to have ever suffered atomic bombings in war and to know the horror of nuclear weapons, to say, 'Let's stop using nuclear weapons, don't build horrible weapons.'"

　Uehara, a second-year high school student at the Okinawa High School Peace Seminar, who also participated in the signature campaign.straight roadHiro"In a world where even the NPT cannot move toward nuclear disarmament, a nuclear ban treaty that outlaws the possession and threat of nuclear weapons is a treaty that will sway public opinion," he said. (Mari Yuzuki)