Japan PM Opposes Sharing U.S. Nuclear Weapons After Abe Proposal

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said sharing nuclear weapons with the U.S. in a way similar to NATO members would not be allowed under Japan's non-nuclear principles, pushing back against a predecessor who floated the idea.

An opposition lawmaker pressed Kishida on the idea in parliament after former premier Shinzo Abe told a TV show Sunday the concept should be discussed and there should be no taboos on such defense issues. 

“From the perspective of maintaining our three non-nuclear principles, it could not be allowed,” Kishida said. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told the same committee Japan wasn't thinking of revising its non-nuclear principles.

Japan Should Discuss NATO-Like Nuclear Weapons Sharing, Abe Says

The disagreement between the premier and his former boss comes as Tokyo watches developments in the Ukraine and their consequences for East Asia with growing alarm. Japan for decades has campaigned for the elimination of nuclear weapons after its cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were devastated by atomic bombs dropped in the final stages of World War Two.

A survey carried out by the Nikkei newspaper found that more than three quarters of respondents were concerned that failure to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine could embolden China to attack Taiwan. Japan sees neighboring Taiwan's security as closely linked to its own, and has a separate territorial dispute with Beijing.   

Japan, the only country to suffer nuclear attacks, has officially maintained three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons outlined by then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967. 

Hemmed in by a pacifist constitution, and beset by threats from North Korea and China, it nevertheless relies heavily on the U.S. “nuclear umbrella” for its security. Declassified documents have shown that the U.S. stored nuclear weapons in Okinawa before it reverted to Japanese control in 1972.

The issue is particularly sensitive for Kishida, who hails from Hiroshima, and has called nuclear disarmament his life's work. In 2016, he accompanied Barack Obama on the first visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial by a sitting U.S. president. 

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