Japan Roundtable 2013 – Perspectives from Japan on Nuclear Issues

(Registration Starts at 2:30 in Hall of Flags)

Light meal will be served after the event.

              Nuclear issues, with its uncertainty and potential, have had great impacts on international society. Japan Roundtable 2012-2013 looks into the nuclear issues the international community faces from three perspectives.

              Session1 introduces what Japan, as the only country that has experienced atomic bombing, has done to promote nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. It has been sixty-seven years since the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki took more than 200,000 lives. Although President Obama has called for the creation of ³a world without nuclear weapons², nuclear weapons still constitute the greatest existential threat to all humankind, well exemplified by ongoing nuclear development and stalled talks on nuclear arms reduction. By inviting Professor Tadatoshi Akiba, former mayor of the city of Hiroshima and renowned activist for the elimination of nuclear weapons, we will revisit what nuclear issues mean to Japan through lessons from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

              In session2, we will then move on to discuss the role of nuclear power in international security from the perspective of post-war Japan-US relations as well as East Asia. Analyzing how the US nuclear umbrella has helped Japan to achieve economic success, the presentation will reveal how nuclear power has affected the region.

              In session3, we turn to the peaceful use of nuclear technology. The 3/11 great earthquake in Japan in 2011 has been a chance for communities all over the globe to re-examine the risk of nuclear technology in our lives. In this section, we will invite a speaker who can speak from a private sector perspective and who faces both the potential and risk of nuclear energy on a daily basis, to provide us with a multilateral understanding of our nuclear issues.