Leaders of non-governmental organizations aiming to influence discussion at the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima urged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday to engage in substantial debate on nuclear weapons.
The Civil 7, made up of NGOs from 72 countries and over 700 people, also urged G-7 leaders to meet with atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and include in the final communique commitments such as unequivocally condemning threats to use nuclear weapons.
The NGOs are calling for G-7 leaders to launch urgent negotiations to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons before 2045.
In a meeting with representatives from the C-7 at his office, Kishida vowed to have "sincere discussions" at the G-7 summit and said he will "consider what form I could include these commitments in the communique."
Amid rising global nuclear tensions sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Kishida has chosen Hiroshima, a city once devastated by an atomic bombing in 1945, to hold the annual leaders meeting.
He has said he intends to make "a world without nuclear weapons" a theme of this year's meeting.
Satoshi Tanaka, director of a Hiroshima prefectural group representing survivors of the atomic bombing, said he told Kishida during the meeting that his vision should "not be just a slogan" and also urged him to "put everything he has into making this summit a historic one."
Mariko Kinai, who is head of the steering committee for this year's C-7, said the prime minister "accepted our proposals in good faith."
The C-7 had decided to make proposals on nuclear disarmament this year in addition to those on other international challenges as the G-7 summit is held in Hiroshima.
The NGOs will hold their own summit Thursday and Friday in Tokyo, to be followed by an additional meeting Sunday and Monday in Hiroshima, to focus on ways to promote nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation.
The May 19-21 summit of the G-7 will bring together leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, plus the European Union.
