Editorial: To facilitate global nuclear disarmament, transparency must be secured

April 20 , 2026

Since it opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has been signed by 191 states, including five possessing nuclear weapons—the US, Russia, China, UK and France. A conference to review the treaty and facilitate its implementation has been held once every five years, with the latest—the 11th overall—to take place from April 27 to May 22 at the UN Headquarters in New York.

However, the past two review conferences have ended in disagreement among the parties. This record of failure makes it even more important than ever for an agreement to be reached in New York.

The NPT recognizes the right of the five nuclear-weapon states to retain their nuclear arsenals, but it prohibits the remaining non-nuclear-weapon states from developing, manufacturing or possession of the weapons. Under Article VI of the treaty, however, all signatories must engage in negotiations on nuclear disarmament “in good faith,” a mandate Komeito believes as particularly significant.

In 2010, Australia and Japan spearheaded the effort—joined by Germany, Canada and ten other countries—known as the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI). A joint statement was issued by the NPDI members on April 13 before the 11th NPT Review Conference, emphasizing the need for nuclear-weapons states to make more transparent the actual number and types of warheads they possess. Without this information, disarmament will simply be a futile exercise.

NPDI’s call for transparency extends beyond NPT signatories, reaching out to the non-signatories of India, Pakistan and Israel—which all three are almost certain to possess nuclear arms—as well as North Korea, which withdrew from the treaty in 2003.

In the meantime, Komeito believes the initiative should also link up with the International Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification (IPNDV), rolled out in 2014 by US President Barak Obama, which the nuclear-weapons states of the US, UK, France, India, Pakistan and Israel, together with Japan and other non-nuclear-weapons states, have signed on.