By Zhao Xuelin
Not long ago, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi stated that Japan should discuss nuclear weapon policy “without any taboos.” It is extremely rare, provocative and dangerous for a sitting Japanese defense chief in the postwar era to make such remarks. They fully expose the ruling establishment’s wild ambition to scrap the three non-nuclear principles and challenge the postwar international order, prompting heightened concern and vigilance in Japan and across the international community.
JAPAN’S THINLY-VEILED NUCLEAR AMBITION
Japan has long harbored the ambition to acquire nuclear weapons. It conducted secret research and development of nuclear weapons during World War II. In 2013, Toshio Tamogami, former Air Self-Defense Force chief and a prominent right-wing commentator, laid out in his book “Japan’s Nuclear Armament Plan” a detailed “three-phase, eight-step” strategy for Japan to achieve independent nuclear armament within 20 years. Japan has also continuously manufactured and stockpiled plutonium far beyond civilian needs — in amounts theoretically sufficient to produce large numbers of nuclear warheads — thus possessing the capability to achieve a nuclear breakout within a short period. Today, Japan is widely recognized as a nuclear threshold state. Among non-nuclear-weapon states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Japan is the only country that has mastered reprocessing technology, acquired the technical capability to produce weapons-grade plutonium, and actually operates a reprocessing plant.
For a long time, successive Japanese governments publicly professed adherence to the three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing, and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan. In recent years, however, Japan has made a series of moves in the opposite direction, with Japanese officials repeatedly discussing revising the three non-nuclear principles in the public domain.
Since Sanae Takaichi took office as prime minister, the Japanese government has recklessly doubled down on its push to strengthen “extended deterrence cooperation,” develop nuclear-powered submarines, pursue nuclear-sharing arrangements, and introduce nuclear weapons into the country. Japan’s right-wing forces, with the government’s acquiescence, have even openly advocated for the country’s independent acquisition of nuclear weapons.
OVERT CONTEMPT OF ITS INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS
Japan’s step-by-step loosening of nuclear constraints, in tandem with its across-the-board military expansion, has laid bare its wild ambition to accelerate remilitarization, flagrantly breaching international obligations and posing a grave threat to the postwar international order and the international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Under binding international instruments, including the Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, Japan is required to disarm completely and not to maintain any industries that could enable the country to rearm, which means that Japan must not retain nuclear materials or capabilities for the development of nuclear weapons. Moreover, as a non-nuclear-weapon State Party to the NPT, Japan is obligated not to receive, manufacture, acquire or transfer nuclear weapons. Yet, Japan’s words and actions show it is not even feigning to honor its international obligations.
A WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
Perhaps conscious that they are on the wrong side of history, Japan’s right-wing forces have gone to extraordinary lengths to project a facade of compliance and legitimacy for their growing military ambitions: They have long portrayed Japan as a “victim of the atomic bombings” and an advocate for a nuclear-weapon-free world, in an attempt to mislead the international community; they have also fabricated pretexts for expanding their so-called “self-defense” posture by hyping up the fictitious “China threat.” These self-contradictory positions and actions of Japan only further expose its hypocrisy and duplicity. The more it tries to cover up, the more it reveals.
The reckless moves by Japan’s right-wing forces do not sell well either domestically. In response, 82 local assemblies across Japan, including those in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, have submitted written opinions to the central government, urging it to uphold the three non-nuclear principles.
The growing nuclear ambitions of Japan are a dangerous sign that Japanese neo-militarism is rearing its ugly head and gaining strength, posing a grave threat to enduring peace and stability in the region and beyond. Yet the tide of history surges forward with such a mighty force that it would overwhelm all who stand in its way. If Japanese authorities obstinately refuse to size up the situation, genuinely reflect on Japan’s crimes of aggression, and make a clean break with militarism, they will end up paying a heavy price.
All peace-loving countries and peoples must remain highly vigilant and unite to thwart any attempt to revive Japanese militarism, uphold the outcomes of the victory of World War II, and safeguard the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, so as to preserve the hard-won international peace and security.
Editor’s note: The author is an Associate Research Fellow at the China Institute of Nuclear Industry Strategy.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.
