Ishiba Remains Silent on Attending Nuclear Weapons Ban Meeting

Jiji Press

17:15 JST, January 8, 2025

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Wednesday stopped short of clarifying whether Japan will participate as an observer in a meeting of signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to be held in March.

Ishiba did not give an answer when a request for such participation was made by members of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, during a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office. Japan, which is under U.S. nuclear umbrella, has not signed the nuclear ban treaty.

Hidankyo co-chair Terumi Tanaka, who joined the meeting with Ishiba, asked the prime minister to meet the group again.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Ishiba offered his congratulations on Hidankyo’s winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. “It’s extremely significant. I’d like to express my sincere respect and gratitude to all of you for your efforts over the years,” the prime minister said.

The Hidankyo members requested that Japan, as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war, exercise leadership toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Ishiba stressed the need for nuclear deterrence as he referred to nuclear activities of China, Russia and North Korea. “The international situation is extremely severe,” he said.

At the same time, the prime minister said, “We share the same desire to aim for a world without nuclear weapons in the future.”

Elsewhere in the day’s meeting, the Hidankyo members requested state compensation for hibakusha atomic bomb survivors and relief for people who experienced the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki but are not certified as hibakusha victims. But Ishiba did not respond to this request either.

Tanaka later expressed his dissatisfaction to reporters, saying, “I don’t think it was a fruitful meeting for Hidankyo.”

It was the first time for Ishiba to meet with senior Hidankyo officials since he took office in October last year.

Tetsuo Saito, head of Komeito, the junior ruling coalition partner of Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party, who had urged the government to realize the meeting, was also present.