Japan Press Weekly

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2016 November 9 - 15 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Japan and India sign nuclear power pact

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on the evening of November 11 met with Indian Prime Minister Narendora Modi at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo and signed an agreement enabling Japan to export its nuclear energy-related materials, equipment, facilities, and technologies to India.

The new deal implies that Japan will give a hand to Indian nuclear armament in contrast to the global trend seeking to achieve a “world without nuclear weapons”.

With the signing of this bilateral accord, India can build nuclear power plants using Japanese-made equipment and technologies. This will possibly lead the largest nation in South Asia to reprocess spent nuclear fuel produced by plant operations in order to extract plutonium for military purposes.

In the first place, India is outside the international framework of nuclear nonproliferation since the country has not ratified the NPT or the CTBT.

The agreement both countries signed on this day stipulates that Japan will suspend its cooperation if India conducts a nuclear-weapons test. However, the two countries made a separate document from the agreement, and nowhere in the document does it state that India must abide by this suspension clause.

In Japan, many victims of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident still live in shelters. The decommissioning of the disabled nuclear reactors is not yet in sight. Under such circumstances, it is absolutely unethical for Japan to sell its nuclear-related expertise to other countries.

On the one hand Japan always denounces North Korea for carrying out nuclear-weapons tests. On the other, it is going to help India further engage in nuclear development. This is the height of hypocrisy.

Past related article:
> Antinuke citizens meet to oppose Japan-India nuclear deal [November 8, 2016]