Letter of Request Calling for the Promotion of Actions to Aid in the Early Realization of a “Nuclear Weapons Convention” submitted to the Japanese government

December 24, 2015

Foreign Minister Kishida (left) and Mayor Matsui of the City of Hiroshima (right)

December 24th, 2015, Tokyo, Japan

On November 9th and 10th, the 5th Japanese Member Cities Meeting was held in Hiroshima City. The submission of a Letter of Request to the Japanese government to call for the promotion of actions to aid in the early realization of a nuclear weapons convention was decided at this meeting. On December 24th, on behalf of Japanese member cities of Mayors for Peace, President Matsui, Mayor of the City of Hiroshima, and Mr. Okubo, Director of the Peace Promotion Office of the City of Nagasaki, met with Foreign Minister Kishida and submitted the agreed-upon Letter of Request to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. They also submitted the Resolution adopted at the 9th Executive Conference of Mayors for Peace.

On receiving the Letter of Request, Minister Kishida said, “I sincerely accept the wish of Mayors for Peace, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. Nuclear disarmament can proceed only if nuclear-weapon states and non-nuclear-weapon states work together. As the only country to have ever suffered atomic bombings, Japan would like to play a leading role in providing a bridge between countries with nuclear weapons and those without them.”

Click here for the submitted Letter of Request

Click here for PDF (the original text in Japanese)