Press Releases

1. On October 28, (October 27 5:35 p.m. local time), the draft resolution “United action with renewed determination towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons,” submitted by Japan and approximately 110 co-sponsored states including the United States to the First Committee of the United Nation General Assembly, was adopted with the overwhelming support of 167 countries. I am pleased that the draft resolution was co-sponsored and supported by a larger number of states than last year, 106 and 156 respectively. The draft resolution is scheduled to be put to a vote in a plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly in early December.

2. The international community currently faces grave challenges to the security and the disarmament and non-proliferation regime, such as the repeated nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches conducted by North Korea. Under the severe circumstances, Japan has been making a series of efforts, including those towards the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). In this April, “G7 Foreign Ministers’ Hiroshima Declaration” (PDF) was issued by both nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear-weapon States together, and in this May, Japan and the United States committed to strive towards “a world free of nuclear weapons” when the Honorable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States of America visited to Hiroshima. Based on such efforts, the draft resolution that Japan submitted calls on both nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear-weapon States to take “united action with renewed determination” in order to realize a “world free of nuclear weapons” through practical and concrete efforts.

3. Specifically, the resolution includes strengthening the regime under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), calling for the early entry into force of the CTBT and the early commencement of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), enhancing transparency of nuclear force, emphasizing that deep concerns about the humanitarian consequences underpin all efforts towards a world free of nuclear weapons, encouraging every effort to raise awareness of the realities of the use of nuclear weapons, including through visits by world leaders, youth and others and interactions with communities and people including atomic bombs survivors (the hibakusha), that pass on their experiences to the future generations, condemning in the strongest terms the recent nuclear tests and launches using ballistic missile technology by North Korea, and strongly urging North Korea to refrain from conducting further nuclear tests and to abandon all nuclear activities immediately in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner, among others.

4. Though these initiatives, the Government of Japan will continue to take the lead on efforts by the international community towards achieving a “world free of nuclear weapons.”