Latest news with #YuzakiHidehiko
NHK
17-07-2025
- Politics
- NHK
Hiroshima governor visits former nuclear test site in Kazakhstan
The governor of Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture has visited a former nuclear testing site and a museum conveying the history of nuclear tests in Kazakhstan. Governor Yuzaki Hidehiko is on a trip to the Central Asian country to deepen collaboration with the former Soviet republic on the elimination of nuclear arms. On Thursday, Yuzaki went to the museum in the city of Kurchatov, which stands next to the former Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site. Museum officials told the governor that the former Soviet Union conducted more than 450 nuclear tests and recorded various data at observation centers at the site. The governor listened to their explanations while observing models on display. The former testing site spans an area of about 18,000 square kilometers, full of grassy fields. Yuzaki toured a four-story concrete building, which was used as an observation station. When the site was in use, observation stations were reportedly set up at equal intervals from the hypocenter and used to take photographs of nuclear explosions. The experiments are said to have caused health problems in 1.5 million people at the site and in surrounding areas. The Hiroshima governor is scheduled to meet some of those who had been exposed to nuclear radiation on Friday.
NHK
25-06-2025
- Politics
- NHK
Hiroshima governor planning to visit former nuclear testing site in Kazakhstan
Sources have told NHK that arrangements are underway for the governor of Japan's Hiroshima Prefecture to visit a former nuclear testing site in Kazakhstan, Central Asia, in mid-July. They say Governor Yuzaki Hidehiko hopes to visit Kazakhstan's capital Astana to discuss peacebuilding policy and other topics with senior government officials. The sources say he also plans to travel to the former Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site in the country's northeast and visit a museum documenting the experiments. More than 450 nuclear tests were conducted at the site during the Cold War, and an estimated 1.5 million people are believed to have suffered health issues. Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The country has been working to rid the world of nuclear weapons. In March, it chaired the third Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This year marks eight decades since the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the closing days of World War Two. Analysts say Hiroshima Prefecture hopes the governor's visit will boost relations with Kazakhstan and deepen collaboration in pursuit of the abolition of nuclear weapons.
