TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that the government will seriously consider participating as an observer in a conference of signatories to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
“We’ll seriously consider the matter,” Ishiba, also president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said in a televised debate with leaders from eight other political parties.
The debate took place ahead of Tuesday’s start of the official campaign period for the Oct. 27 election for the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of parliament.
The discussion came after the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, a group of hibakusha atomic bomb survivors, was named this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
Ishiba said there is a proposal from Komeito, the LDP’s coalition partner, for Japan’s participation in the conference as an observer. “I don’t intend to ignore it,” he said.
But he noted that Japan is surrounded by nuclear states and autocracies. “We need to discuss how to balance banning nuclear weapons and relying on U.S. nuclear deterrence,” he said.
Komeito leader Keiichi Ishii said Ishiba should decide on Japan’s participation in the conference as an observer.
Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, also called for the country’s participation in the conference, saying, “Japan should show its seriousness toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.”
“The international community may be suspicious,” Noda also said, referring to Ishiba’s calls for sharing nuclear weapons and reviewing the country’s three nonnuclear principles.
Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) leader Nobuyuki Baba expressed support for Japan’s participation in the conference as an observer.
Democratic Party for the People chief Yuichiro Tamaki said Japan should speak about the reality of exposure to nuclear weapons and play its own role.
Japanese Communist Party leader Tomoko Tamura said Japan has to join the treaty.
JIJI Press