Nobel Peace Prize winner urges Japan to sign anti-nuclear arms treaty

Co-chair of A-bomb victims group questions need for U.S. nuclear umbrella

Terumi Tanaka, a Nagasaki atomic bombing survivor and co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Oct. 22. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)

ANDREW SHARP, Nikkei staff writer

October 22, 2024 18:31 JST

TOKYO -- The co-chair of the collective of Japanese atomic bomb survivors that won this year's Nobel Peace Prize urged the Japanese government to sign an international agreement aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons.

Since its formation in 1956, Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, has pushed Tokyo for greater support for victims and lobbied global governments for measures to prevent nuclear war and abolish nuclear weapons.