By Gerry Yokota, Co-Coordinator of the World BEYOND War Japan Chapter, World BEYOND War, July 14, 2026

The annual Cross-Country Peace March—a relay march transversing all 47 Japanese prefectures over several months—began in May and will culminate in Hiroshima in early August, ahead of the 2026 World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.

Marchers are walking thousands of kilometers from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south along designated national highways. Local municipal networks organize daily handovers of peace banners and petitions containing thousands of signatures urging the Japanese government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) before the Review Conference scheduled for November 2026.

The provisional program for this year’s World Conference against A and Hydrogen Bombs indicates a focus on four major areas: (1) the systematic dismantling of traditional nuclear deterrence theory in international relations; (2) civil society solidarity; (3) hibakusha testimony, including that of Korean hibakusha and communities impacted by nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands; and (4) youth diplomacy, focusing on intergenerational knowledge transfer.

Members of the Japan chapter of World BEYOND War walked a 10k segment from Toyonaka City in Osaka Prefecture to Kawanishi City in Hyogo Prefecture on July 7. Special attention was called to the violation of the Kobe Formula in March, when the U.S.S. Warrior was allowed to dock at Kobe Port in Hyogo Prefecture without submitting a declaration that it was not carrying nuclear weapons.

You can sign the petition to nine nuclear governments to ratify the TPNW treaty here.

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