The G7’s Hiroshima Summit on May 19-21, 2023, confronts four key potentially existential, interrelated, global threats – the danger of nuclear war in Europe and Asia, irreversible climate change and global health. Japan’s G7 presidency identified these threats as priorities from the very start of its year as G7 host, alongside other immediate challenges in the economic, social, ecological and political-security domains.
As Japan and its G7 partners develop their agenda and prospective actions for the Hiroshima Summit, they and their citizens will consider several key questions.
- How well have G7 summits governed nuclear weapons, climate change and global health in the past, through timely, well-tailored, collective commitments and members’ faithful compliance with them?
- What further advances have come from recent summits influenced by G7 members, notably the G20’s Bali Summit in November 2022?
- How and where has Japan, especially as a G7 host, effectively shaped summit action on nuclear weapons, climate change and global health in the past and what assets does it have for doing so now?
- What are the most urgent and important needs for actions to control nuclear weapons, climate change and global health now, and ones that Japan’s Hiroshima Summit can best supply in May?
To assist in finding answers to these questions at an early stage, the G7 Research Group, Soka University, Soka Gakkai International and the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation are sponsoring a one-day invitational, international conference at Soka University in Tokyo on March 29, 2023. At this hybrid livestreamed event, experts from the educational, academic, civil society and government communities will gather in person and virtually to share their perspectives and offer their best analysis and advice on what Japan’s Hiroshima Summit should do to control nuclear, climate and global health risks. The conference will conclude by assembling specific recommendations that command the most consensus at this event, as the basis for priority recommendations to be sent by the sponsors to the G7 planners themselves.
