Arab News Japan

TOKYO: The Japan-based Buddhist group Soka Gakkai welcomed the UN’s nuclear ban treaty, which this week was ratified by enough countries to go into effect at the beginning of next year.

The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was ratified by Honduras on October 24, coinciding with the anniversary of the establishment of the UN itself. Now that the treaty has been ratified by 50 countries, it is set to enter into effect on January 22.

“The entry into force of the TPNW establishes the fundamental norm that nuclear weapons are subject to comprehensive prohibition,” said Hirotsugu Terasaki, Soka Gakkai’s international director general for peace and global issues. “This has a profound historical significance.”

It is not only religious groups like Soka Gakkai that have voiced support for the treaty – many in Japan are calling on the country to ratify it and demonstrations have been held.

However, while Japan supports the eventual eradication of nuclear weapons and is the only country to have been attacked with them in war, its reliance on the American nuclear umbrella for defense has kept it from signing on.

“It is up to civil society to decide if we will continue to tolerate humanity being held hostage by nuclear weapons, or whether we will raise our voices as an irresistible force for their banning and abolition,” said Terasaki, whose organization has supported nuclear disarmament since the 1950s.

The UN treaty would ban the development, production, stockpiling and use of nuclear arms. However, none of the nations currently holding nuclear weapons have endorsed it.