Report
November 20, 2003
 TOKYO--On November 20, 2003, Canadian Senator Douglas Roche, Chair of the Middle Powers Initiative (MPI), led an MPI delegation to meet with foreign ministry officials and key parliamentary leaders in Tokyo. MPI encouraged the government of Japan to play a more active leadership role in promoting the 13 Practical Steps and strengthen the center of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime by supporting the New Agenda resolutions at the United Nations General Assembly and their proposals for the 2005 NPT Review Conference.
Japan's policy is becoming increasingly important due to the increasing risk of proliferation of nuclear weapons and missile technology in the North East Asian region, and the influence Japan could have on policies and practices of other key countries including the USA and North Korea
The MPI delegation including Dr. David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara, California; Dr. Hiromichi Umebayashi, President of Peace Depot, Japan; and Mr. Alyn Ware from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Global Coordinator of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), met with Kazunori Tanaka, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs in charge of disarmament issues; Ichiro Ogasawara, Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Division; Tsuneo Suzuki MP (Liberal Democratic Party) and President of PNND Japan; Taro Kono MP (Liberal Democratic Party), and Ryuichi Doi MP (Democratic Party of Japan).
Presenting an Aide-Memoire, "Making the NPT Work in 2005", Senator Roche and his colleagues stressed the importance of Japan playing a more pro-active role in working toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons. "The current direction of US nuclear weapon policies and the lack of effective nuclear disarmament create a heightened possibility of future Hiroshimas and Nagasakis," the Delegation emphasized. "Japan has a responsibility to the Hibakusha and to humanity as a whole to prevent the catastrophic future use of nuclear weapons."
The MPI delegation put particular emphasis on encouraging the government of Japan
- to repudiate all attempts to base national or international security on nuclear weapons, including Japan's current reliance on the US nuclear umbrella;
- to take a leadership role in pursuing a Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone as an alternative to deploying missile defenses;
- to change its votes from abstention to support of the two New Agenda Coalition Resolutions currently debated in the UN General Assembly; and
- to take a strong stand for legally binding security assurances by the Nuclear Weapon States to the Non-Nuclear-Weapon States at the 2004 NPT Preparatory Committee meeting and at the 2005 NPT Review Conference.
The Japanese officials agreed to consider the issues and to extend its contact with New Agenda countries and with other allies of the US - particularly Canada which supported the New Agenda resolution at the UN - in working for the preservation and strengthening of the NPT and towards implementing a program of disarmament.
Urs Cipolat and Alyn Ware contributed to this report. |
