Japan Unlikely to Attend Future Nuke Ban Meetings: Hayashi

   Tokyo, March 3 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Monday signaled a negative view over the possibility of the country attending future meetings of signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as an observer.
   "We will make a decision appropriately based on our conclusion" related to the third such meeting, scheduled to kick off the same day in New York for a five-day run, Hayashi told a press conference. Japan has not signed or ratified the treaty.
   The top government spokesman said that Tokyo will not participate in the meeting as the treaty is "incompatible with (U.S.) nuclear deterrence," and argued that nuclear disarmament efforts should be promoted under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty instead.
   "We came to think this way because we are seriously aiming for a world without nuclear weapons," he said.
   The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, which won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, has continued to call on the Japanese government to take part in the third meeting of signatories with observer status, as this year marks 80 years since the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

(2025/03/03-13:01)

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