Ex-vice foreign minister steps forward to testify to the existence of Japan-U.S. nuclear weapons secret arrangement

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Ex-vice foreign minister steps forward to testify to the existence of Japan-U.S. nuclear weapons secret arrangement

A former senior foreign ministry official testified that in 1960 when the governments of Japan and the U.S. revised their security treaty, they secretly agreed to allow U.S. warships and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to enter Japan without holding prior consultation.

Murata Ryohei, 79, a former vice foreign minister, has recently revealed this in interviews with Japanese media, including Akahata.

Four former vice foreign ministers recently acknowledged the existence of the secret agreement allowing the bringing in of U.S. nuclear weapons to Japan, which was reported by media on June 1. They did not identify themselves.

In his "Memoir of Murata Ryohei" published by Minerva Publishing Co. Ltd. in 2008, Murata testified that there had been a secret nuclear deal and that he received from his predecessor a document on a secret Japan-U.S. agreement on allowing port calls by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear weapons.

He was a vice foreign minister from July 1987 to August 1989.

Murata said that under the 1977 Territorial Sea Act, Japan's territorial sea was expanded to 12 nautical miles, but that the three nautical miles limit was applied to five straits, including Soya, Tsugaru, and Tsushima so that U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons would be permitted to pass through these straits between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan.

On April 21 at the House of Representatives agriculture committee meeting, then Japanese Communist Party representative Masamori Seiji asked the government if the "12 nautical miles limit" was applied to these straits, it would be in violation of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles to not possess, produce, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan. "I suspect that the government needed to avoid criticism from opposition parties", he said.

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Kono Taro, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chair, on July 1 told the press that what Murata, a former top foreign ministry official, stated under testimony cannot be overlooked. "As a legislative body, the House of Representatives is called upon to inquire into the matter independently," he added.

Kono hinted that the committee should summon Murata as a witness on the affair.

However, Foreign Minister Nakasone at the committee on the same day stated that there was no such secret agreement.

The opposition parties rebuffed this by calling on the committee chair to summon Murata either as a sworn or unsworn witness.

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Regarding the testimony affirming the existence of a Japan-U.S. secret agreement on bringing nuclear weapons into Japan as a serious matter, the Japan Peace Committee on June 30 petitioned Prime Minister Aso Taro, Foreign Minister Nakasone, the House of Representatives speaker, and the House of Councilors president.

The Peace Committee in the letter demanded that the secret agreement should be made open to the public and formally rescind.

Now that the foreign ministry refuses to either affirm or deny the existence of such a pact, the government should summon Murata to hear his testimony on the matter, the committee stated.

- Akahata, July 2, 2009