Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading atomic bomb survivors group, held a rally on Friday in Tokyo to protest Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's attempt to revise the country's long-held Three Non-Nuclear Principles.
The group also submitted a joint petition to the government with lawmakers and representatives from multiple political parties.
Organizers said more than 3.449 million signatures had been collected as of Friday afternoon. Nihon Hidankyo stressed that steps to abolish nuclear weapons must not be delayed, and urged the government to uphold the Three Non-Nuclear Principles and put them into law.
Rally participants later marched to the House of Representatives members' office building to voice their opposition to Takaichi's attempt to alter the policy and Japan's recent export of Patriot air-defense interceptor missiles to the United States, which is Japan's first export of deadly weapons since it relaxed controls on arms exports.
"Japan is developing weapons and even selling them to foreign countries. All this fuels war," said a protester.
"I believe exporting weapons is unconstitutional. Japan is not a country that survives through arms exports or the weapons industry. If the Takaichi cabinet embarks on such a wrong path, we must firmly stop it," said Kushibuchi Mari, member of Japan's House of Representatives.
"We must strive to bring Japan back on the right track where weapons exports are put to an end. Japan must never start a war, especially in Asia. Japan must not start a war, nor resort to force, or exercise the right of collective self-defense. It should strive for peace through diplomatic and other non-military means," said Mizuho Fukushima, leader of Japan's Social Democratic Party.
The Three Non-Nuclear Principles were first declared in the Diet, Japan's parliament, by then Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 and viewed as a national credo. The National Security Strategy, one of the three security documents approved by the Cabinet in 2022, states, "The basic policy of adhering to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles will remain unchanged in the future."
Kyodo News recently quoted government sources as saying that as her government gears up to revise the country's key national security documents by the end of 2026, Takaichi was considering reviewing the third of The Three Non-Nuclear Principles, which prohibits nuclear weapons from entering Japan's territory, raising strong doubts and concerns at home.
Japanese protest Takaichi cabinet's push to revise non-nuclear principles
Japanese protest Takaichi cabinet's push to revise non-nuclear principles
