JCP Chair Shii criticizes Aso for clinging to U.S. 'nuclear umbrella'

Japan Press Weekly

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

JCP Chair Shii criticizes Aso for clinging to U.S. 'nuclear umbrella'

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on August 6 said that Prime Minister Aso Taro's argument at a news conference on August 6 that Japan will continue to need to depend on the U.S. nuclear umbrella contradicts his "pledge" at the ceremony to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Shii said, "This is an argument using double standards. The dependence on the U.S. nuclear umbrella is based on the policy of using nuclear weapons against an enemy in the event of an emergency."

"If he admits Japan, the only atomic-bombed country, is to display the initiative to get nuclear weapons abolished, it is important that Japan gets rid of the nuclear umbrella to become genuinely nuclear-free," he added.

- Akahata, August 7, 2009