Japan Press Weekly

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2009 May 27 - June 2 [FOREIGN POLICY]

Government’s denial of ‘secret deal on nuclear weapons’ driven into a corner: Niihara

Commenting on the Kyodo News report on May 31 that four former vice foreign ministers testified to the existence of, and their involvement in, a secret Japan-U.S. deal on nuclear weapons, Niihara Shoji, an international affairs analyst, stated as follows:

One of the four former vice foreign ministers stated that he saw the documents and handed down the matter to his successor and that it was "a top secret", the report said. This is of serious significance in that it for the first time reveals precisely how the nuclear deal has been kept and handled as a top secret matter within the Foreign Ministry.

Also, their testimonies endorsed the legitimacy of the inquiry into the secret deal by then JCP Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo at the Diet in 2000.

Under the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the Japanese government has been urged to accept the policy of bringing U.S. nuclear weapons into Japan as a top secret, while trying to mask the secret deal before the public.

The Japanese government must be denounced for having kept the matter secret in the only A-bombed nation and for violating the Three Non-Nuclear Principles.

The need now is for the public to be informed of the government’s top secret deal so that they can be in a better position to support nuclear weapons abolition.