Japan PM noncommittal over nuke pact in meeting with Nobel-winning Hidankyo

Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese atomic bomb survivors' group that won last year's Nobel Peace Prize, urged the government on Wednesday to participate as an observer at a convention of signatories to a U.N. nuclear weapons ban treaty, but said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba remained noncommittal during a meeting in Tokyo.The group's co-chair Terumi Tanaka said the roughly 30-minute sit-down with the prime minister, held to congratulate the group on the prize, "did not yield results" on the issue. Another attendee, Toshiyuki Mimaki, described Ishiba's reticence as "regrettable."Japan's top govern…READ FULL ARTICLE