3,449,012 Signatures Collected and Jointly Presented to Government
Urging Japan to Join the TPNW
Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo)
On November 21, responding to the call of Nihon Hidankyo, the joint presentation of signatures on the petition: “We Call on the Government of Japan, the Only A-bombed Country in Wartime, to Sign and Ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” was held in Tokyo. This was the first joint action where Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), Gensuikyo (Japan Council against A and H Bombs) and Gensuikin (Japan Congress Against A and H Bombs) coordinated, since the three organizations issued a joint appeal on July 23: “On the Occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing: We Call for Nationwide Efforts to Inherit and Spread the Reality and Experiences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”
With over 300 participants, including 100 Hidankyo members, representatives of many organizations working together in the signature campaign and political party leaders and parliamentarians, the venue was standing-room-only. The number of signatures on the petition has now reached 3,449,012. In front of the stack of boxes on the stage filled with signed petitions, these representatives directly handed a bundle of petitions one after another to a deputy director of Foreign Ministry, who received the signatures on behalf of the Government of Japan.
Tanaka Terumi, Co-Chair of Nihon Hidankyo stated, “Prime Minister Takaichi’s remarks about revising the Three Non-Nuclear Principles (State official policy of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear arms brought into Japan) are an extremely serious matter.” Secretary-General Hamasumi Jiro of Hidankyo appealed, “The Hibakusha cannot accept the Japanese government entrusting national security to the United States and failing to sign or ratify the TPNW.”
Tani Masashi, Secretary General of Gensuikin appealed, “To protect our safety, nuclear weapons must be eliminated without delay. We urge the government to sign and ratify the TPNW as a starting point for building our secure future.”
Yasui Masakazu, Gensuikyo’s Secretary General, pledged to broaden the signature campaign, stating, “If they say ‘Japan’s security environment is becoming more severe,’ then banning nuclear weapons is all the more necessary. Any attempt to revise the Three Non-Nuclear Principles is absolutely unacceptable.”
Following the rally, a demonstration urging the Japanese government to join the TPNW was held in front of the National Diet building that same evening. Approximately 700 people raised placards reading “#StandWithHibakusha” and voiced their demands for the abolition of nuclear weapons and the upholding of Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles.
