Japan declines to comment on PM Office source’s remarks on possessing nukes

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Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Japan “maintains the three non-nuclear principles as a matter of policy”.

PHOTO: AFP

TOKYO - Japan’s top government spokesman on Dec 19 repeatedly declined to comment on remarks by a source in the Prime Minister’s Office that Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, should possess nuclear weapons.

The comments on Dec 17 by the individual involved in devising security policy deviate from the country’s long-standing non-nuclear principles. They also came as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, known for her hawkish security views, is said to be

considering a review of the non-nuclear principles.

At a regular press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Japan “maintains the three non-nuclear principles as a matter of policy”.

He also declined to comment on whether the source would continue to serve in their position.

The three non-nuclear principles, which prohibit possessing, producing, or permitting the introduction of nuclear arms, were first declared in Parliament in 1967 by Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and came to be viewed as a national credo.

“Leading international efforts toward a world without nuclear weapons, so that they are never used again, is Japan’s mission as the only country to have suffered atomic bombings in war,” Mr Kihara added.

In unofficial exchanges with reporters, the source said, “I think we should possess nuclear weapons.”

Acknowledging the necessity of such weapons, the source said that “in the end, we can only rely on ourselves”. At the same time, the source indicated that such a move was unrealistic and denied