
Nihon Hidankyo executive urges abolition of nuclear weapons at U.N. meeting
A senior official of Nihon Hidankyo, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, urged the international community to redouble efforts for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the third meeting of signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on Monday.
"Atomic bombs are the 'devil's weapons' that rob people of their future," Jiro Hamasumi, assistant secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo, formally called the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, said in an address at the meeting, which started the same day at the U.N. headquarters in New York for a five-day run.
Hamasumi, 79, was exposed to radiation from the U.S. atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima City on Aug. 6, 1945, when he was in his mother's womb.
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The Diplomat
3 hours ago
- The Diplomat
Tajikistan Orders Afghan Refugees Out en Masse
Tajikistan has reportedly intensified its campaign to detain and forcibly deport Afghan refugees, including many with valid residency permits. According to several sources, the Tajik government recently issued a 15-day ultimatum for Afghans to leave the country voluntarily, triggering widespread fear and uncertainty among the community. The ultimatum follows a series of sporadic but limited deportations of Afghan refugees from Tajikistan in recent years. Just in April of this year, Tajikistan deported around 50 Afghans who held refugee documents issued by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most of the deportees worked as taxi drivers in Vahdat, a town 15 kilometers outside Dushanbe. The refugees were reportedly summoned to the local state security department, where their documents were confiscated before they were transported to the border in two vehicles. In the first week of June, the Ministry of Migration Affairs of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan announced that 49 Afghans had been deported from Tajikistan for 'unknown reasons.' The migrants – 36 of whom held residence permits in Tajikistan, while 13 others had valid visas – were returned to Afghanistan via the Sherkhan border crossing in Kunduz province. Tajik authorities have not issued any statements regarding these recent cases. Previously, Afghan refugees were deported from Tajikistan for publicly justified, if dubious, reasons such as having an unkempt beard, wearing foreign-style clothing, consuming alcohol, engaging in political discussions on social media, or generally violating residency rules. The new wave of deportations is unexplained and appears to mainly target male Afghan refugees residing in Vahdat and Rudaki districts, both suburbs of the capital. The detentions are taking place at workplaces and in residential areas without prior warning or communication with the families of those detained, many of whom are sole providers for their households. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Tajikistan has served as a refuge for citizens of neighboring Afghanistan fleeing the civil war in the 1990s, the U.S. invasion in the 2000s, and the return of the Taliban in 2021. The Tajik government, which has long used the fight against religious extremism in the region as a pretext for cracking down on domestic opposition, positioned itself as unabashedly anti-Taliban to bolster its own popularity and at first welcomed the waves of refugees in 2021. Current unofficial estimates place the number of Afghan refugees in the country between 10,000 and 13,000, a number difficult to verify. A significant portion of these Afghans are awaiting decisions on immigration cases, particularly resettlement opportunities through countries like Canada. However, Russia's recent recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan is forcing the Tajik government to tone down its anti-Taliban position and is giving Dushanbe a convenient excuse to deport thousands of refugees straining the country's already-thin social services. Forced deportations at this stage will derail the refugees' asylum applications to third countries and place them in immediate danger, as many are former civil servants or military personnel associated with the previous Afghan government. After the fall of the Afghan Republic in August 2021, many fled to neighboring countries such as Tajikistan to escape potential retribution from the Taliban. The crackdown in Tajikistan mirrors increasing pressures in Iran and Pakistan, where the vast majority of 6 million Afghan refugees reside. Both countries have ramped up deportations of Afghan refugees in recent months, expelling thousands each day through increasingly aggressive and punitive measures. In June alone, the two countries expelled at least 71,000 Afghan refugees. The UNHCR has called on the authorities of host countries to refrain from deporting Afghans back to Afghanistan, where their lives could be in danger, urging instead to consider resettlement to third countries or proper legal procedures. Numerous reports have documented incidents of violence, intimidation, and even extrajudicial killings of returnees in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In one such incident in June, the Taliban arrested about 20 young men in Panjshir Province for their alleged links to anti-Taliban armed groups after they were deported from Iran. With fewer and fewer countries offering relocation or asylum options, Afghan refugees in Central and South Asia are increasingly trapped in a desperate situation. Many are now compelled to choose between uncertain futures in host countries and the deadly risks of returning to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.


Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Japan Times
JCP vows fairer taxes, stronger social safety net and a commitment to peaceful diplomacy
Sunday's Upper House vote will be an election of historic significance for the future of Japan. The Japanese Communist Party will do everything in its power to help voters drive the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito into a minority in the House of Councilors and bring an end to LDP rule. Like millions of voters, we call out the LDP-Komeito conservative coalition and call for equally harsh judgment of their complementary forces — Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People. As the oldest political party in Japan, we will resolutely fight against xenophobia and extreme right-wing trends. The LDP's politics are now in a terminal and critical state with the party unable to respond to domestic and international issues or the wishes of the people. Many people are suffering from rising prices, yet the LDP is completely ill-equipped. Its members offer only short-term repairs — not long-term solutions — to the surge in rice prices and rice shortages. Pensions, medical care, nursing care and social security — all are in a growing state of crisis and the ruling coalition is heading down a path that will only make things worse. Real wages have been negative for three consecutive years, yet no one is taking political responsibility to raise wages and provide relief for Japan's workers. At the root of all this is the distortion of politics that prioritizes the interests of the business world and large corporations. On the foreign-policy front, Japan's challenges are just as great. How should we deal with President Donald Trump's America? Should we continue down the path of military expansion as Washington tells us to? How should we respond to the Trump administration's unjust tariffs? Or being forced to construct a new U.S. military base in Okinawa and turn our backs on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons? Can we continue to be at the mercy of America? The JCP believes that if we want to realize the earnest wishes of the people, we need to reform the LDP's 'business-centered' politics and stop putting ourselves at the mercy of the person in the White House. The expansion of the JCP, which cuts into these two distortions, is a sure way to improve Japanese politics and our nation's standing in the world. Please help our party make a breakthrough in this historic election by voting for the JCP candidate in your area. Our basic policies have remained consistent throughout the years and always put the interests of the average Japanese worker first. As a party that has consistently advocated for the abolition of the consumption tax, the JCP will do its utmost to urgently reduce the consumption tax to 5% with the aim of abolishing it. The big problem is how to secure the funds for this. We propose ending the tax-cut handouts to large corporations, which Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says he regrets and has admitted are 'ineffective.' We will fund the abolishment of the consumption tax by correcting the tax cuts and preferential treatment for large corporations and the wealthy, including reviewing the preferential tax system for the wealthy commonly referred to as the '¥100-million wall' because tax burdens relative to income drop for earners of more than ¥100 million. In addition, we will promptly raise the minimum wage to ¥1,500 per hour, aiming for ¥1,700. To achieve this, we will impose a temporary tax on a portion of the internal reserves of large companies, which have accumulated to over ¥500 trillion, and use the resulting financial resources to support wage increases for small and medium-sized enterprises. In conjunction with wage increases, we will reduce working hours and increase 'free time,' while improving the treatment of nonregular workers and eliminating unjust termination of employment. On the agricultural front, we will change the erroneous policy of forcing rice farmers to reduce their acreage and production, and promote increased rice production, ensuring a comfortable supply and demand, as well as price guarantees and income compensation for farmers. The politics of pitting the elderly against the working generation and cutting social security have increased the hardships of all generations, dampened consumption, stirred up anxiety about the future and contributed greatly to economic stagnation. We will change this and work to improve social security. In terms of political reform, we will ban corporate and organizational donations and eliminate money-based corruption. For younger people, we will aim to make tuition free up to university. We will increase public education spending to the OECD minimum level and improve poor educational conditions. We will also correct excessive competition and management in education, while creating a rent-reduction and rent-subsidy system and promoting the construction and supply of public housing. On the foreign-policy front, we will reject the Trump administration's demand for a massive military expansion, stop the creation of a warring nation based on the Japan-U.S. alliance and devote our efforts to diplomacy to build peace in East Asia. To address the climate crisis, we will aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 75%-80% by 2035, phase out nuclear and coal-fired power plants and promote a shift to renewable energy and energy conservation. Last but not least, we will promote gender equality, including optional separate surnames for married couples, the early realization of same-sex marriage and the correction of the wage gap between men and women. We will also continue to work to eradicate discrimination and hate speech against foreign nationals, protect the rights of foreign workers and promote the revision of immigration laws in accordance with international human-rights law. Tomoko Tamura is the chairwoman of the Japanese Communist Party. In the lead-up to the July 20 Upper House election, The Japan Times reached out to the nation's major political parties requesting an op-ed for our Opinion pages on why this election is so crucial and why their party deserves the citizens' vote. We are publishing all those who responded.


Kyodo News
21 hours ago
- Kyodo News
Kyodo News Digest: July 16, 2025
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