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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Japan’s national
security is the primary reason it will not participate as an
observer at the conference, which starts Monday in New York.
“Under the severe security environment, nuclear deterrence is
indispensable to defend the people’s lives and assets, as well
as Japan’s sovereignty and peace,” Hayashi told reporters.
Japan’s participation as an observer at the conference would
“send a wrong message about the Japanese policy (supporting)
nuclear deterrence and interfere with our effort in security,
peace and safety.”
The U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was
approved in 2017 and went into force in 2021 following a
decades-long campaign aimed at preventing a repeat of the U.S.
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World
War II.
Japan, despite being the only victim of the nuclear attacks, has
refused to sign the treaty, saying its goal is not feasible
without the participation of any of the nuclear weapons states.
Hayashi said participating as an observer would also interfere
with Japan’s ongoing effort to gain support for strengthening
the non-proliferation treaty and hinder nuclear disarmament.
He did not give further details about Japan’s next steps.
Japanese officials have said they share the ultimate goal of
achieving a nuclear-free world but that Japan needs to be
realistic amid growing global conflicts. Atomic bombing
survivors and their supporters have criticized Japan's
government for making a hollow promise while clinging to the
U.S. nuclear umbrella.
The survivors and their supporters have urged the Japanese
government to participate in the conference as an observer amid
growing global attention after Nihon Hidankyo, the atomic
bombing survivors' grassroots organization, was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize last year.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is a defense expert and vocal
supporter of nuclear deterrence who has called for a more open
debate about the role of U.S. extended deterrence in the region.
Japan has also expressed more openly its desire to ensure
“extended deterrence” by U.S. nuclear weapons in recent years
amid growing tensions with China.
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