Press Conferences

Toba, Nippon TV: The Hiroshima Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is finally beginning from day after tomorrow. Please explain again how you would like to exchange views between Foreign Ministers from the various countries.

Mr. Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs: The G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will start from the day after tomorrow on the 10th and will also take place on the 11th. Many preparations have occurred ahead of the Meeting since last year. I have conducted multiple telephone talks with all of the G7 Foreign Ministers even since the start of this year. I have also held Foreign Ministers’ Meetings with the United Kingdom early this year and then Canada, Italy, and France thus far in 2016.

The Meeting will be held after conducting these various preparations. I expect a meeting that sufficiently confirms the results of the extensive preparatory work. However, coordination efforts will continue to the last moment. The Government intends to put its fullest effort toward success through the very end.

Toba, Nippon TV: During this meeting, each Foreign Minister will be visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. What do you hope that Foreign Ministers from the various countries, including nuclear weapon countries, will see and feel at the Peace Memorial Museum and the Memorial Cenotaph in the Park?

Minister Kishida: I believe it is important for the Foreign Ministers to see the sites and have their own feelings. They will have an opportunity to witness with their own eyes the realities of atomic bombings by actually going to the sites, and it is important that they will see various things with their own eyes and react with their own feelings.

The Foreign Ministers’ Meeting for the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) took place in Hiroshima two years ago, and Foreign Ministers from NPDI participant countries visited the Peace Memorial Park and Peace Memorial Museum. They commented at the time that “the experience was very moving” and “it is a memory that will never be forgotten.” I hope that the Foreign Ministers this time also will gain meaningful observations and feelings.

Fukai, TBS: I think the Meeting has scheduled five sessions. Could you please explain the themes you expect to discuss at the sessions and the results you hope to obtain?

Minister Kishida: Coordination with the various countries has already taken place at administrative, Foreign Ministerial, and other levels to prepare the five sessions. I would like to refrain from commenting on the content at this point because coordination is continuing to the very end. I expect various coordination will last right up until the end. I would like to refrain from making comments that suggest that session content has been finalized at this point because various coordination, including the content, is likely to last to the final moment.