Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday voiced his commitment to leading efforts to realize a world free of nuclear weapons in a meeting with the U.N. disarmament chief, ahead of next year's U.N. conference on nuclear nonproliferation.
In a 15-minute meeting in Tokyo with Izumi Nakamitsu, U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, the two agreed on the importance of meaningful results at the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to be held in New York from Jan. 4 to 28, according to the Foreign Ministry.
As the leader of the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Kishida voiced his "determination to lead international efforts to realize a world without nuclear weapons" during the meeting, the ministry said. The prime minister's family hails from Hiroshima Prefecture and he represents a constituency in the prefecture.
Nakamitsu expressed hope Japan will play a proactive role as a bridge between nations with differing stances.
Nakamitsu also met with Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi later in the day and invited him to attend the NPT review conference. Hayashi told her that "as the only country in the world to have suffered wartime atomic bombings, Japan has a very important responsibility" to push forward nuclear disarmament.