Japan to ‘seriously consider’ U.N. nuke ban treaty observer status, Ishiba says

Just days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a grassroots group of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors pushing for the abolition of nuclear arms, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has signaled that his government will “seriously consider” participating as an observer in a conference of signatories to a U.N. treaty that bans the destructive weapons.

Speaking on an NHK television program Sunday featuring other major party leaders, the prime minister appeared more open to the possibility of Japan participating in the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons than he had during a debate a day earlier in the run-up to an Oct. 27 Lower House election.

Japan, the sole country to be attacked with nuclear weapons, has faced criticism for not participating in some form in the treaty.