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Mr. ABE Shinzo, Prime Minister
Mr. KONO Taro, Foreign Minister

For a Nuclear Weapon-Free World and Peace and Security of Japan, We Urge the Government to Make a Fundamental Shift to Non-nuclear & Peace Diplomacy Based on the Constitution

June 27, 2018
Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo)

On the eve of the 73rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we are witnessing significant efforts being made internationally to achieve a nuclear weapon-free, peaceful and more just world, in line with the aspirations of the world peoples and the ideal of the Charter of the United Nations.

Turning its back to the diplomatic efforts for peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Government has kept calling for the “maximum level of pressure”, while throwing cold water on every effort for talks, saying that it was a “waste of time”. All these actions are utterly contrary to the obligation set out by the Japanese Constitution as well as the principle of the U.N. Charter, which both make it a principle to resolve international conflicts by peaceful means.  Such outrage is fundamentally endangering the peace and security of Japan.

On July 7, 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted with overwhelming support --122 votes in favor and 1 against -- by the UN conference to negotiate the prohibition of nuclear weapons, convened on the basis of the resolution of the U.N. General Assembly.  The Treaty, when it enters into force, all the activities related to nuclear weapons, including their use or threat of use, development, manufacturing, possession and testing, will be rendered illegal. Those states which continue to possess or rely on nuclear weapons, even if they refuse to sign or ratify the treaty, will not be able to evade a stigma as countries that rely on the anti-human and anti-civilization weapons of mass-destruction, in violation of the spirit of the U.N. Charter.

On April 27 this year, the Inter-Korean Summit was held at Panmunjeom between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.  It was followed by the U.S.-DPRK Summit on June 12, which agreed on achieving denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, formally ending the Korean War and building a permanent peace regime on the peninsula. This, too, reflects the international opinion that supports the settlement of international conflicts by peaceful means and the denuclearization, as well as the specific efforts based on the basic principles of the U.N. Charter. We warmly welcome these significant achievements on the issue involving the vital interests of the Japanese and other people in Asia and the rest of the world, and hope for further development of the situation.

We seriously regret, however, the attitude taken by the government of Japan at this historic juncture, on both issues of the nuclear weapons abolition and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. As is known, the people of Japan, as the only nation that have suffered the tragedy of the atomic bombing, have a strong desire for banning nuclear arms and are working together with the Hibakusha to achieve it. Also, from the self-critical reflection on the past wars of aggression and the people’s experiences from the disastrous wars, Japan has declared as its constitutional principle to achieve solutions of international conflicts through peaceful means and to renounce the possession of war potentials. Despite that, the Japanese government opposed even to the convening of the negotiation conference on the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons, and is refusing to sign or ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, on the ground that it has to rely on the U.S. “nuclear umbrella”.

Further, the government sets no restriction on the U.S. forces in their operation from their bases in Japan, willingly agrees their storage of nuclear weapons in Okinawa in any time at emergency, and even opposed the decommissioning of nuclear cruise missiles from U.S. surface ships, when consulted by the U.S.  Following President Trump’s assuming office, Prime Minister Abe went as far as to “highly appreciated” the President Trump’s statement that “All options are on the table”, the very plain language for nuclear blackmail.

Turning its back to the diplomatic efforts for peace and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the Japanese Government has kept calling for the “maximum level of pressure”, while throwing cold water on every effort for talks, saying that it was a “waste of time”. All these actions are utterly contrary to the obligation set out by the Japanese Constitution as well as the principle of the U.N. Charter, which both make it a principle to resolve international conflicts by peaceful means.  Such outrage is fundamentally endangering the peace and security of Japan.

On the other hand, such outrageous dependence on U.S. nuclear weapons in defiance of its own constitution, went so much as to cause a serious scandal at the U.N. session last year. In the draft resolution tabled by the Japanese government, the references to many important agreements related to the abolition of nuclear weapons so far achieved in the NPT conferences, were blatantly falsified.

Now that the world is taking big steps forward to save the succeeding generations from the scourge of nuclear war, the Japanese government ought to play a positive role to achieve peace and abolition of nuclear weapons, responding to the expectation of the international community and its own people. For this, we call on the government to drastically review its diplomacy, or the lack of it, and take the following actions:

1. To honor the will of the people of the only A-bombed country and to make sincere effort to achieve the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons; to positively examine the signing and ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, to stand to defend firmly and call for the full implementation of all past agreements leading to the abolition of nuclear weapons reached at the U.N., NPT, CD or any other conferences, including the “unequivocal undertaking to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons” by the nuclear weapon states, “building of a legal framework to create and maintain a world without nuclear weapons” and the convening of an international treaty for creating a Middle East zone free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction;
2. To welcome the agreements to achieve denuclearization and building of a peace regime of the Korean Peninsula and adhere to the solution of problems through peaceful and diplomatic means. To endeavor to solve the bilateral issues between Japan and the DPRK based on the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration and the joint statement issued by the Six-Party Talks, and to achieve peace between the two countries;
3. To reconfirm that the Constitution of Japan is both the foundation and the objective of Japan’s diplomacy and to strive to restore international confidence in Japan’s diplomacy.