TOKYO, September 8 /PRNewswire/ --

Daisaku Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist
association, issued a proposal Sept. 8 outlining concrete steps toward the
abolition of nuclear weapons. A vocal opponent of these inhumane weapons for
more than 50 years, he stresses that we now have a unique opportunity to
build grassroots solidarity, propel political processes and break out of the
stagnation which has dogged nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation efforts.

Ikeda targets the double standards operating in the world today regarding
possession of nuclear weapons and states that no rational arguments for their
retention remain.

In order to build peace and stability in Northeast Asia, he urges that
all countries involved in the six-party talks concerning North Korea's
nuclear weapons development program declare Northeast Asia a nuclear non-use
region, with the goal of making it a nuclear-weapon-free zone.

Ikeda's proposal, titled "Building Global Solidarity Toward Nuclear
Abolition," outlines five key steps to be taken over the next five years:

1. The five declared nuclear-weapon states to announce their commitment
to a shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons at next year's NPT
Review Conference and to promptly initiate concrete steps toward its
achievement.

2. The United Nations to establish a panel of experts on nuclear
abolition, strengthening collaborative relations with civil society in the
disarmament process.

3. The State Parties to the NPT to strengthen nonproliferation mechanisms
and remove obstacles to the elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2015.

4. All states to actively cooperate to reduce the role of nuclear weapons
in national security and to advance on a global scale toward the
establishment of security arrangements that are not dependent on nuclear
weapons by the year 2015.

5. The world's people to clearly manifest their will for the outlawing of
nuclear weapons and to establish, by the year 2015, the international norm
that will serve as the foundation for a Nuclear Weapons Convention.

Ikeda's proposal will be presented on Sept. 10 at an event during the
upcoming Annual UN Department of Public Information/NGO Conference in Mexico
City. The conference aims to build momentum toward the 2010 NPT Review
Conference which offers a critical opportunity for progress toward nuclear
abolition.

In 2006, Ikeda issued a proposal on UN reform, stressing that only a
groundswell of public opinion against nuclear weapons will ultimately compel
governments to act. In 2007, SGI launched the "People's Decade for Nuclear
Abolition" and intensified its awareness-raising efforts, in partnership with
other NGOs.

Ikeda states that ultimately, the struggle against nuclear weapons is a
moral one, commenting: "...to put the era of nuclear terror behind us, we must
struggle against the real 'enemy.' That enemy is not nuclear weapons per se,
nor the states that possess or develop them. The real enemy that we must
confront is the ways of thinking that justify nuclear weapons; the readiness
to annihilate others when they are seen as a threat or a hindrance to the
realization of our objectives."

Daisaku Ikeda is president of the Soka Gakkai International lay Buddhist
association, an international network with 12 million members whose
activities to promote a culture of peace are based on the longstanding
principles of Buddhist humanism.

For information about SGI's antinuclear activities, see:
http://www.sgi.org/assets/pdf/do/SGI_NGO_AR_2009.pdf

For the People's Decade for Nuclear Abolition campaign, SGI has created
educational resources including the "Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
Women Speak Out for Peace" multi-language DVD. See:
http://www.peoplesdecade.org

Contact:
    Joan Anderson
    Office of Public Information
    Soka Gakkai International
    Tel: +81-3-5360-9482
    Fax: +81-3-5360-9885
    URL: www.sgi.org
    E-mail: janderson[at]sgi.gr.jp