A Japanese lawmaker spoke at a meeting of signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons for the first time as he attended the third conference in New York on Tuesday.
Shinji Morimoto, a member of the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of Japan's parliament, elected from the Hiroshima prefectural constituency, called for the abolition of nuclear weapons as a representative of a nongovernmental organization amid the Japanese government's absence.
"Nuclear weapons and humanity cannot coexist," Morimoto from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan stressed at a panel discussion, noting that there are people still suffering from the effects of radiation even nearly 80 years after the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
From Japan, Morimoto and five other Upper House lawmakers are attending the meeting, which runs until Friday. On Monday, they exchanged views with lawmakers from nonsignatories including France and Canada.
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