Japan won't join UN meeting on nuclear weapons ban, citing support for US deterrence

U.S. 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 U.N. 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 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

Japan, despite being the only victim of the nuclear attacks, has refused to sign the treaty, saying its goal is not feasible without the participation of any of the nuclear weapons states.

• Artificial Intelligence(AI)

  Java Programming with ChatGPT: Learn using Generative AI

  By — Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer

• Artificial Intelligence(AI)

  Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrows Innovations

  By — Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer

• Artificial Intelligence(AI)

  Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT

  By — Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and