The Sunday editions of all national dailies wrote that Prime Minister Kishida is making arrangements to announce a plan to help create a UN fund to assist young people from around the world learn about the reality of the atomic bombings through visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The prime minister is planning to make the announcement when he becomes the first Japanese prime minister to deliver a speech at a review conference on the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in New York on Aug. 1. Asahi wrote that Japan is considering holding a meeting of political leaders and scholars to discuss nuclear disarmament and the goal of realizing a world without nuclear weapons in Hiroshima in late November. 

Monday papers wrote that Kishida left for New York last night, quoting him as saying upon his departure: “International momentum for seeking a world without nuclear weapons has declined considerably. I would like to use the NPT conference as an opportunity to reverse this trend and rebuild the momentum.” 

In a related development, all national papers wrote today that Kishida’s executive secretary Shimada will not accompany the premier to New York because he tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. Another secretary contracted the virus last week.