As Nagasaki marked the 72nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing on Wednesday, Mayor Tomihisa Taue demanded that the Japanese government join a recently adopted treaty banning nuclear weapons.
Taue's call for Japan's inclusion in the treaty, which was adopted by 122 United Nations members last month, followed an appeal on Sunday by the mayor of Hiroshima for the government to "bridge the gap" between nuclear and non-nuclear states to help achieve a ban on nuclear weapons.
In Nagasaki's annual Peace Declaration at its memorial ceremony, Taue called the government's stance "incomprehensible" and pleaded for Japan to join the treaty along with nuclear weapons states plus other countries under the U.S. nuclear umbrella.