Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Monday signaled a negative view over the possibility of Japan 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 news conference.
Japan has neither signed nor ratified the treaty.
The top government spokesman said that Tokyo is not participating 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 as an observer, as this year marks 80 years since the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nihon Hidankyo is set to send two senior officials to the New York meeting, which is slated to be attended also by young people from nongovernmental organizations.
Tokyo announced on Feb. 18 its decision to skip the meeting, with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya explaining that it was made from the perspective of nuclear deterrence, saying, "Qualitative and quantitative nuclear arms expansion is progressing around Japan."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.