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2018 March 21 - 27 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Japanese high-ranking diplomat advocated ‘nuclear sharing’ between US forces and SDF

A high-ranking Japanese diplomat made remarks suggesting that nuclear weapons be deployed at U.S. bases in Japan and be shared with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces. Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Inoue Satoshi revealed this fact on March 20 at a House Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting.

The controversial remarks were found in a report which was published in 2013 by the U.S. environmental organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The JCP lawmaker presented the report in the Upper House committee meeting.

The report stated that a Foreign Ministry bureaucrat, Akiba Takeo, who is currently the ministry’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, told UCS that “the only effective nuclear deterrent option for Japan is an arrangement similar to the ‘nuclear sharing’ arrangement the United States provided during the Cold War to several members of the NATO alliance who do not have their own nuclear weapons.”

JCP Inoue, moreover, referred to Akiba’s statement as going against Japan’s Three Nonnuclear Principles which was given at a meeting of the U.S. Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States in 2009 during his term as political counselor at the Japanese Embassy in Washington D.C.

At the meeting on February 25, 2009, while opposing the Obama administration’s policy shift to working for nuclear disarmament, Akiba proposed that the U.S. government introduce a replacement for the nuclear Tomahawk Land Attack Missile and modernize the nuclear warheads. His proposal for modernized nuclear warheads included low-yield earth-penetrating nuclear weapons. Akahata reported on his outrageous statement earlier this month.

Inoue said that it is unforgivable for Japanese diplomats to make statements in violation of the nation’s Three Nonnuclear Principles.

Foreign Minister Kono Taro in reply said, “Akiba said that he has no memory of holding conversations with UCS people,” and added that the Japanese government firmly upholds the non-nuclear principles.

Past related articles:
> Japan expected Obama administration to maintain and enhance US nuclear capability [March 4, 2018]
> Japan’s high-ranking diplomat agreed to US proposal on nuclear facility construction in Okinawa [March 5, 2018]