Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga omitted part of his speech at the Peace Memorial Ceremony held in Hiroshima on Friday and apologized for the error at a press conference following the ceremony.
In the speech, Suga said, "Japan will firmly uphold the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. Free of nuclear weapons," but he omitted the next part, in which he was meant to continue the sentence, saying: " And as the only country in human history to have experienced the horror of nuclear devastation in war, Japan understands better than any other country the inhumanity of nuclear weapons. It is important to make steady efforts towards realizing a world free of nuclear weapons."
Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of the ruling coalition junior partner Komeito, said, "The government's consistent policy of aiming for a world without nuclear weapons is unchanged."
According to sources close to the government, Suga had rehearsed the speech beforehand, but pages of the accordion-folded manuscript had become stuck together.
Suga, who has been busy handling the coronavirus pandemic, "must be very tired," a veteran lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.
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