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2014 February 12 - 18 [POLITICS]

Foreign Minister hints at breach of Three Non-Nuclear Principles

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio stated that the Abe Cabinet is carrying on the former Democratic Party-led government’s position to open a crack in successive governments’ opposition to bringing nuclear weapons into Japan on February 14 at a House of Representatives budget committee meeting. This remark shows the intent to fundamentally change Japan’s principle to never allow the entry of nuclear weapons onto its soil and to accept the use of such weapons.

Kishida was referring to what Okada Katsuya said as the foreign minister of the DPJ government on March 17, 2010 at a Lower House foreign affairs committee meeting. Okada stated that the government can give an exception to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles if it recognizes the need for nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan in emergencies.

The Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not to manufacture, possess, or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan) were established as a national credo through the then Prime Minister Sato Eisaku’s Diet statements made in 1967 and the 1971 resolution adopted at a Lower House plenary session. Behind the principles was the pressure exerted by the mounting public movement to never allow a repeat of the tragedy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to oppose the U.S. forces’ attempt to bring nuclear weapons into Japan.

Okada made the remark in the Diet right after the DPJ-led government released its results of investigations into a secret Japan-U.S. agreement to allow U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan.

The DPJ government at that time failed to enter into negotiations with the U.S. government to abrogate the secret agreement and left the matter as it was. It was later revealed that, prior to the release of the investigation results, the government had negotiated with the U.S. government and obtained approval from the U.S. side for Okada’s controversial remark.

It is extremely serious that the Japanese government continues to try to break the Three Non-Nuclear Principles in order to meet the U.S. wish to maintain the option to bring its nuclear weapons into Japan.