Japan Press Weekly

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2013 August 14 - 20 [SDF]

We will share info on SDF possession of poison gases with local residents: gov’t response to JCP Dietman

The government has indicated to Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Shiokawa Tetsuya its intention to explain to local residents about poison gases the Ground Self-Defense Force produces.

The Cabinet on August 13 approved the written response to an inquiry submitted by the JCP lawmaker. In the response, the government says it will sincerely respond to and give explanations of emergency procedures to local municipalities, fire stations, police stations, and residents’ associations regarding such specific substances as sarin gas which the GSDF synthesizes at its chemical laboratory in the Omiya garrison in Saitama City.

The official written response admits to the fact that for purposes of defense research, the GSDF has produced small amounts of chemicals which the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) regulates, and is disclosing to the public for the first time the amount of production, use, disposal, and possession of those hazardous materials over the past eleven years. Army researchers produced a total of eleven specific chemical agents during that period of time.

Shiokawa has pointed out that no information in the event of an accident has been shared by the GSDF with local communities and has asked the authorities to make public exactly when the research started.

Several testimonies and documents prove that the SDF has produced chemical agents since the 1960s, but the written response avoids specifying when the Army began making such compounds.