Hiroshima Mayor Akiba Wins Ramon Magsaysay Award

Manila, Aug. 2 (Jiji Press)--Tadatoshi Akiba, mayor of the western Japan city of Hiroshima, has won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is thought to be Asia's Nobel Prize, for his strenuous efforts to build a world without nuclear weapons.

Akiba, 67, is one of the seven Ramon Magsaysay Award winners for
this year announced by the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation on
Monday. The award ceremony will be held on Aug. 31.
Akiba is being recognized for "his principled and determined
leadership in a sustained global campaign to mobilize citizens, pressure
governments and build the political will to create a world free from the
perils of nuclear war," the foundation said.
Akiba was first elected mayor of Hiroshima in 1999 after serving as
lawmaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan's
parliament.
He serves as president of the Mayors for Peace, an international
organization comprising mayors of cities aiming to abolish nuclear weapons.
The group aims to achieve the goal by 2020.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki in southwestern Japan are the world's only
two cities attacked with nuclear weapons. On Friday, Hiroshima is set to
mark the 65th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Aug. 6,
1945 in the closing days of World War II.
The award, established in 1957 to commemorate former Philippine
President Ramon Magsaysay who was known to be a clean politician, is granted
to Asian individuals or institutions with remarkable achievements in such
fields as public service, and peace and international understanding.
Magsaysay died in a plane crash in 1957.
Among Japanese nationals, Japan International Cooperation Agency
President Sadako Ogata, who has served as U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees, and late painter Ikuo Hirayama won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in
1997 and 2001, respectively.