1 June 2002
Japan Official Challenges Taboo on Nuclear Arms
By REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) - In remarks likely to infuriate Asian neighbors, a senior Japanese official has suggested Tokyo could abandon a decades-old ban on nuclear weapons, prompting Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to race to control the damage.

Japan, the only nation ever to suffer an atomic bomb attack, has stuck for nearly 35 years to its ``three principles,'' which ban the possession, production and import of nuclear arms.

Tokyo could review that self-imposed traditional ban, local media on Saturday quoted a senior Japanese government official as saying on condition of anonymity.

``The principles are just like the Constitution. But in the face of calls to amend the Constitution, the amendment of the principles is also likely,'' Kyodo news agency quoted the unidentified top government official as saying.

Apparently mindful of a possible backlash from Asian neighbors such as China and South Korea, Koizumi moved quickly to reassure the world that his government would not break with the nuclear taboo.

``My cabinet will keep the non-nuclear weapon principles,'' Koizumi told reporters in Seoul late on Friday.

``Japan will not possess a nuclear arsenal because we have these principles.''

Shortly after returning from Seoul, Koizumi reiterated his commitment to a nuclear-free Japan. ``This is not even worthy of serious discussion,'' Koizumi told reporters at his official residence.

The mayor of Hiroshima, the city destroyed by the world's first nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945, added his voice to the debate.

``I am concerned that the ultimate goal for the government is to become a country with nuclear weapons,'' Kyodo quoted Tadatoshi Akiba as saying.

``The remarks will create a sense of mistrust about Japan abroad and lead to increased risk of nuclear proliferation.''

HAWKS QUEUEING UP

The controversial statement by the senior government official was the latest in a string of remarks by hawkish officials and politicians seeking to challenge Japan's postwar pacifism.

Ichiro Ozawa, leader of Japan's second-biggest opposition party, drew a sharp response from Beijing in April when he said Japan could easily make nuclear weapons and surpass Beijing's military might.

And on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda expressed what he called his personal view that it was not against the law for Japan to possess nuclear weapons.

``Japan does not have offensive arms because it restricts military activity to self-defense,'' he said, referring to such offensive arms as long-range missiles and atomic bombs.

He went on to say that Japan could have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) even under its security policy that is specified as being exclusively for self-defense.

However, Japan's increasingly schizophrenic view of its pacifist policy was reflected minutes later when Fukuda had to roll back after consulting with his secretaries, saying: ``Japan will not possess ICBMs because they exceed the defense-only policy.''

Koizumi himself, known for his nationalistic tinge, has repeatedly vowed to press for a more active role for Japan's military in international peace-keeping activities with a view to revising the 1947 pacifist Constitution.

Calls have mounted from both ruling and opposition party politicians for changes to Japan's U.S.-drafted Constitution, which renounces war as a sovereign right -- a clear break with the traditional taboo on debating revisions.

Tokyo's ties with Asian neighbors have been strained since last August by Koizumi's visits to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead -- the most recent in April -- and by Japan's approval of a history textbook that critics say whitewashes Japan's wartime aggression.

Asian neighbors, particularly China and South Korea which suffered most from Tokyo's wartime aggression, regard visits to the Shinto Yasukuni shrine in central Tokyo by Japanese officials as signs of a revival of Japan's militarism.