At the current meeting of the disarmament committee of the United Nations millennium assembly, Japan has presented a draft resolution calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. The proposal, which lays out a timetable for total nuclear disarmament, marks a step forward from previous appeals for the "ultimate" elimination of nuclear weapons. The Japanese initiative is in response to an explicit commitment to total nuclear disarmament made by the five nuclear powers in May this year at a review meeting on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty -- a commitment U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan hailed as a "historic agreement."

The proposal makes the following points: First, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty should take effect by 2003. Second, negotiations for a treaty banning production of weapons-grade fissionable materials -- the so-called cutoff treaty -- should start immediately and be concluded by 2005. And third, the United States and Russia, even after signing the START III strategic arms reduction treaty, should make further efforts to cut their nuclear arsenals with a view to creating a nuclear weapons-free world.

Predictably, some of the nuclear powers have objected to that scenario, saying it is unrealistic. Japan should stick to its guns, however. Nuclear disarmament talks will not make progress unless the nuclear-weapons states swallow "bitter medicine." But recent developments indicate that the momentum for nuclear disarmament seems to be waning.