Asia PR News

TOKYO, Jan. 26 /KYODO JBN-AsiaNet/–

In his annual peace proposal issued today, SGI (Soka Gakkai International)
President Daisaku Ikeda calls for improved relations between China and Japan.
He also calls for a summit-level meeting of all the states currently
participating in the Six-Party Talks on the issue of North Korean nuclear
disarmament.

Ikeda was one of the first Japanese to call, in 1968, for the normalization
of Sino-Japanese relations. Echoing his message at that time that improved
China-Japan relations hold the key to peace in Asia, and citing encounters
since then with top-level Chinese leaders committed to the same vision, Ikeda
urges a renewal of efforts to build friendship between the two Asian neighbors.
This will require serious political efforts rooted in a long-term perspective.
At the same time, Ikeda stresses that cultural and educational exchanges among
people, especially youth and students, can build bonds that transcend and
outlast changes on the political level.

On North Korean nuclear arms development, Ikeda notes the importance of the
joint statement from the fourth round of the Six-Party Talks, issued in
September 2005. In this statement, North Korea commits "to abandoning all
nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning, at an early date,
to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to IAEA
safeguards" and the US affirms that "it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean
Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or
conventional weapons." This finally sets the stage for the start of meaningful
negotiations. A summit-level meeting of all six parties, with representation of
the UN and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and dedicated to
removing obstacles to substantive progress, could, Ikeda suggests, jump-start
the process of peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, giving it
irreversible momentum.

Ikeda also calls for increased global efforts in disarmament education and
human rights education. Specifically, he proposes that human rights education
be made a standing agenda item to be debated at all sessions of the soon-to-be
established UN Human Rights Council. Ikeda’s stress on the "soft power" of
people’s consciousness reflects the perspective of Buddhist humanism, and he
states, "A transformation in the inner life of a single individual can spur and
encourage similar changes in others… I am confident that this kind of
‘people’s power’ has the potential to accelerate efforts for disarmament and
bring to full flower a global culture of peace."

Since 1983, Daisaku Ikeda has written an annual proposal on issues of peace
and human security. These are released on January 26, commemorating the
founding of the SGI in 1975. SGI is a lay Buddhist association with 12 million
members in 190 countries and territories.

Source: Soka Gakkai International

CONTACT: Andrew Gebert
Office of Public Information
Soka Gakkai International
Tel:+81-3-5360-9830
Fax:+81-3-5360-9885
www.sgi.org