Sep 21, 2009 2 min read

Five months ago, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech in Prague calling for “a world without nuclear weapons.” The world has already started to act.

On Sept. 24, in New York, Obama will host a meeting of the 15 heads of the U.N. Security Council member states to discuss nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.

The five permanent members of the Security Council are all nuclear powers and have veto power. The issue of nuclear disarmament that would require all five to cut their nuclear arsenals has long been considered taboo in the body.

Yet this year, the heads of state of those countries are going to discuss that very issue.

This is a groundbreaking event.

From Japan, a non-permanent member, Yukio Hatoyama, who will be prime minister by then, will participate. …

Japan should take an active role.

First, it should draw out a road map toward achieving a non-nuclear Northeast Asia as proposed by the Democratic Party of Japan.

Also, the DPJ-led government should require all the nuclear powers to pledge not to use nuclear arms in a first strike.

It is also essential for the government to urge China to work toward nuclear arms reduction.

Of course, it is necessary to pursue patiently and persistently a solution to the sticky issues of North Korea’s nuclear program and Iran’s uranium enrichment, both of which threaten the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) framework itself. We urge the DPJ-led government to show the world a uniquely Japanese concept of nuclear disarmament while maintaining close cooperation with the United States.

Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo