In show of support to US, Japan won’t join UN meet on nuclear weapons ban

Tokyo: Japan will not attend a UN conference on the treaty banning nuclear weapons, a top government official in Tokyo said Monday, noting US nuclear deterrence is crucial to the country’s security and that its participation would send the “wrong message”.

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 UN 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 US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.