Japan GSDF Chemical School Certified by Int'l Body

Saitama, Sept. 25 (Jiji Press)--A ceremony was held in Saitama on Wednesday to commemorate the designation of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Chemical School as a laboratory cooperating with an international organization dedicated to eliminating chemical weapons.

"It is important to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said during the event at the GSDF's Camp Omiya in the city, just north of Tokyo, where the chemical school is located.

Kihara said he wants members of the school to improve their skills and contribute to efforts by the international body, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to abolish chemical weapons.

Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW sends inspectors to sites where chemical weapons are suspected of being used or manufactured to collect samples.

Designated laboratories analyze the samples to determine whether they are related to chemical weapons. In 2013, the OPCW won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]