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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) presented a public lecture by Mr Masayoshi Hamada, Japan’s former Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs and a member of the House of Councillors, on “Peace building towards ‘a Nuclear Weapons-Free World’ – Working with the citizens of the world” on campus, today (22 October).

Mr Hamada presented the new movements for nuclear disarmament, including the Ottawa Process, the Oslo Process, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, and the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Declaration, etc. The United Nation Security Council Summit on nuclear disarmament unanimously passed Resolution 1887 last month. At the meeting, President Hu Jintao of People’s Republic of China made a statement on abandoning the nuclear deterrence policy based on first use of nuclear weapons and establishing a legally-binding international instrument towards this end.

Keeping in mind these resolutions, statements and new movement, Mr. Hamada shared his proposal on the “New Hiroshima-Nagasaki Process” and suggested options for immediate action.

Mr Hamada graduated from Faculty of Engineering at Kyoto University in 1979. He worked for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1980. In 1995, he joined the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Office in Geneva. He was appointed Director of the Chemical Safety Office, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, MITI in 1999. In 2000, he joined the New Energy and Industrial Technology Department Organization (NEDO). He was appointed Director of the Fine Chemicals Office, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) (formerly called MITI) and Director of the Bio-Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

In 2004, Mr Hamada was elected a member of the House of Councillors and appointed Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2006. A year later, he became Director of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Policy Research Council, New Komeito. Currently, he is the Vice-Director General of the Policy Research Council, New Komeito.

CUHK has been organising the Consuls General / diplomats lecture series since 2005. A number of famous diplomats, including the Consuls General of the USA, UK, Japan, France, Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Italy, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to PRC, and the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC in Hong Kong have delivered lectures on the CUHK campus.