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5th Japanese Member Cities Meeting of Mayors for Peace and Submission of a Letter of Request to the Japanese Government Regarding a Nuclear Weapons Convention
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On November 9 and 10, 2015, the 5th Japanese Member Cities Meeting of Mayors for Peace was held in Hiroshima City.
This is a meeting that is held once a year to enhance Mayors for Peace activities in Japan.
This time, 126 people (including 39 heads) from 86 municipalities attended.
Opening
Firstly, Mayors for Peace President, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, made a speech to open the meeting, in which he stated
"I believe that it is important that each member city moves ahead with initiatives to create global momentum for the abolition of nuclear weapons."
He also made special mention of the promotion of youth exchange activities, and called for member cities to cooperate fully in such activities, as a top priority matter for the Japanese Member Cities Meeting.
Program to communicate the reality of the atomic bombing
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Participants paying respects and laying flowers at the Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims
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This was followed by a screening of the documentary film Hiroshima no Kioku (Memories of Hiroshima), and an A-bomb testimony by Ms. Yoshiko Kajimoto.
The attendees then went to the Peace Memorial Park to pay their respects and lay flowers at the Cenotaph for A-bomb Victims, as well as taking a tour of the Peace Memorial Museum.
Session I (Presentation on peace activities in Hiroshima City)
Next were presentations by various groups in Hiroshima city that conduct peace-related activities, on their day-to-day activities.
The groups that gave presentations were
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Hiroshima Jogakuin Senior High school, Honkawa Omotenashi group, the Chugoku Shimbun Newspaper Junior Writers, and Associate Professor Atsuko Morikawa of Hijiyama University.
Session II (Reports on examples of peace-related activities)
The first item on the program for the 2nd day was reports from Mayor Kobayashi of Kodaira City in Tokyo and Mayor Muroto of Motosugun Kitagata Town in Gunma Prefecture, on examples of peace-related activities being conducted in their respective municipalities.
These reports helped to contribute to future activities by member cities.
Session III (Deliberation on agenda items, Discussion, etc), Session IV (Adoption of meeting summary document) and Closing
Next, Mayor Matsui fulfilled his duties as chairperson of the meeting to facilitate the deliberation on the agenda items.
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The first item to be deliberated was new and extended activities in the Mayors for Peace Action Plan from 2013－2017.
The items agreed upon were:
the promotion of youth exchange activities between member cities, activities to educate people on the reality of the atomic bombing and the risk of nuclear weapons, and the enhancement of petitioning activities aiming to bring the number of member cities to 10,000 by 2020.
Agreement was also reached on submitting 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.
The secretariat then provided an explanation on the 6th Japanese Member Cities Meeting.
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Hiroshima Mayor Matsui (left) and Nagasaki Mayor Taue (right) at the 5th Japanese Member Cities Meeting of Mayors for Peace
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This was followed by a free discussion by participants, during which there were many constructive opinions on future activities.
The meeting closed with the adoption of the Summary document, which included an overview of the meeting.
Submission of Letter of Request to Japanese Government
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From the left: Foreign Minister Kishida, Hiroshima Mayor Matsui
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Based on the decision made at the meeting, on December 24, 2015, Mayor Matsui and Mr. Kazuya Okubo, Director of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and the Peace Promotion Office of the City of Nagasaki, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and presented the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Fumio Kishida with 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.
Minister Kishida, receiving the document, said
"I sincerely accept the wish of Mayors for Peace, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.
Nuclear disarmament can proceed only if nuclear-
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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."
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| (Peace and International Solidarity Promotion Division) |
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