All papers reported that Japan was officially selected by the 20 leaders as the host nation of the G20 summit in 2019. Next year’s summit will be held in Argentina. 

All papers reported on an emergency UN Security Council meeting held on Wednesday, which failed to reach an agreement on responding to North Korea’s ballistic missile test on Tuesday. Asahi wrote that although the U.S. plans to submit a draft sanctions resolution within a few days, Russia opposed additional sanctions on the DPRK and China called for the suspension of….Read more

Mainichi, Nikkei, and Sankei wrote that Prime Minister Abe and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg agreed at their meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday that Japan and NATO will enhance cooperation in maritime security and cybersecurity. Abe told a joint press conference after their talks that the international security environment is becoming increasingly severe due to North Korea’s nuclear….Read more

NEW YORK — North Korea has been pressing to secure a position at U.N. headquarters in New York for one of its officials through the world body’s work program, multiple U.N. sources familiar with the matter told Kyodo News on Saturday.   Washington and Tokyo have expressed serious concerns about the possibility, arguing that if a North Korean official secured….Read more

Sankei projected that the GOJ will be able to join the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) as early as mid-July following the implementation of the recently enacted anti-conspiracy law on July 11. MOFA plans to expedite domestic procedures, such as the designation of a “central authority” to be responsible for mutual legal assistance with other signatories, so….Read more

Tuesday evening’s Asahi front-paged a report on remarks delivered by two survivors of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki at a meeting of nations participating in negotiations on a treaty to ban nuclear weapons held at the UN headquarters on Monday. The survivors called on the participating nations to conclude the treaty at an early date and expressed hope for nuclear….Read more

On June 17, information regarding a leaked report to the Japanese Democratic Party (DP) came to light. Yuichi Kaido, a lawyer and the deputy director of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ task force handling anti-conspiracy legislation, allegedly leaked to the DP a letter written by Joseph Cannataci dated May 22. Cannataci serves as a special rapporteur for the UN. The letter details….Read more

NEW YORK — Japanese atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Friday presented a petition with nearly three million signatures to U.N. officials as a conference is under way to negotiate the world’s first nuclear weapons ban treaty.   Toshiyuki Mimaki, 75, and Masako Wada, 73 — survivors, respectively, of the Hiroshima bomb on Aug. 6, 1945 and the….Read more

It is highly doubtful to what extent a U.N. human rights expert grasped the state of freedom of expression in Japan in writing a report of his findings in the country.   David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, has reported his survey results at a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council….Read more