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TOKYO, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Five atomic bomb survivor groups in Japan's Nagasaki protested on Thursday against a civilian nuclear cooperation treaty between Japan and India that was approved by Japan's parliament a day earlier.

The groups, formed mainly by survivors from the U.S. atomic bombings in 1945, said that they will send a letter of protest to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanding the treaty be scrapped, on concerns that the treaty could be misused for military purposes.

The government is "damaging the rule of law and actively spreading nuclear threats" by inking the treaty, said 76-year-old Shigemitsu Tanaka, vice director of the Nagasaki Survivors Association, at a press conference.

Japan and India signed the pact during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan last year. The treaty, which could come into effect as early as next month, will allow Japan to export nuclear power technology and equipment to India.

It marked the first time that Japan has inked such a kind of deal with a country that is not a signatory of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

India has tested nuclear bombs in the 1970s and 1990s without joining the NPT which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its supporters argued that an annex to the treaty has stipulated that the nuclear deal will be suspended if India breaks its promise and conducts nuclear testing.

Opponents of the pact, however, said that the annex lacks binding power and there is no guarantee that Japan's nuclear technology won't be redirected and misused.