The risk posed by nuclear weapons has never been greater. The international community must share responsibility for the future.

During the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Terumi Tanaka of the 2024 prize-winning Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Suffers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, sounded the alarm, imploring, "Make sure that humanity does not destroy itself with nuclear weapons."

These are words from an A-bomb survivor, or hibakusha, that world leaders should heed.

Russia, which has continued its war on Ukraine, has repeatedly made nuclear threats, lowering the hurdle for the weapons' use. China, meanwhile, has built up its long-range strategic nuclear arsenal, and North Korea is developing tactical atomic arms.

All these countries have positioned nuclear capabilities as important military strategies.

In response, the United States is said to be considering plans that would enable it to counter all three countries simultaneously. In addition to strengthening its arsenal of conventional weapons, it is considering boosting its deployment of nuclear warheads.

The impending return of Donald Trump as U.S. president has exacerbated concerns. During his first term, he withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known simply as the Iran nuclear deal, which limited Iran's nuclear activities, and also pulled out of Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between Washington and Moscow.

Trump declared that the U.S. would build up its nuclear capabilities, and even suggested a nuclear attack on North Korea. With a heightened sense of crisis, the U.S. Congress tried to limit the president's ability to launch nuclear weapons.

There have been no changes to his hardline stance, however. Trump argues that a president should not be condemned for ordering the use of nuclear weapons. There is also speculation that the U.S. will resume underground nuclear weapons tests.

The only way to break the negative cycle is to search for countermeasures through dialogue.

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the U.S. and Russia is set to expire in February 2026, around one year after of the launch of the next U.S. administration. It is essential for the two countries to agree on an extension and ensure they do not increase their deployment of nuclear weapons.

Efforts from the international community are also important. At the United Nations General Assembly this autumn, it was decided that a panel of experts would be set up to predict the damage that nuclear war would inflict on humanity and the world.

If national leaders talk together while envisioning the enormity of that damage, then they should be able to join together in the "nuclear taboo" -- that nuclear weapons must never be used.

Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Nihon Hidankyo after the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the prize in 2017 is a testament to grassroots power. We hope to expand public opinion toward abolition.

As the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons in wartime, Japan has a responsibility to make efforts to bring the current "nuclear world without constraints" back to the ideal of "a world without nuclear weapons."