Japan Press Weekly

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2013 October 23 - 29 TOP3 [ANTI-N-ARMS]

Japan has no intent to depart from nuclear umbrella

Just after the Japanese government signed on to a UN statement seeking the nonuse and abolition of nuclear weapons, ministers of the Abe Cabinet displayed their intention to keep relying on the supposed nuclear umbrella provided by the United States.

Regarding the joint statement, Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio on October 28 at a meeting of the House of Representatives special committee on security said, “The national security policy, including nuclear deterrence, will be maintained.” Defense Minister Onodera Itsunori at the same meeting made a similar remark. These were made in response to a question from Liberal Democratic Party representative Iwaya Takeshi.

Iwaya argued that since neighboring countries have nuclear weapons, Japan should stick to the nuclear deterrence policy in order to guarantee its security.

The statement, which was presented at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly First Committee on October 21, states, “It is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances,” and the only way to achieve this is “through their total elimination.”

The Japanese government, which had refused to support past statements of this kind because they contradicted the nation’s security policy, decided to sign the statement for the first time.

On the day following the UN committee meeting, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo issued a statement calling on the national government to discard the U.S. nuclear umbrella and take a leading role in working to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons.