The United Nations General Assembly has decided to hold the U.N. Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Aspects in New York in July 2001. The trade involves a broad range of hand-carried arms from automatic rifles to portable missiles.
The illicit trade in small arms became an international issue around 1992. These weapons have killed an estimated 4 million people in the regional conflicts that have proliferated since the end of the Cold War. Civil wars have created millions of refugees, aggravated internal security as crime and terrorism spread and caused untold damage to noncombatants. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official described small arms as "de facto weapons of mass destruction in the post-Cold War era."
Japan has been taking initiatives to control small arms since 1995. In order to bring the coming U.N. conference to a successful conclusion, the nation should contribute to demonstrate leadership.