Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)–The Japanese government is considering including in its three key security-related documents an exception to allow the entry of nuclear weapons in emergencies, while maintaining Japan’s three nonnuclear principles, informed sources said Tuesday. The government is mulling the proposal ahead of the planned revisions to the three security-related documents at the end of this year. After taking into account working-level talks between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as discussions by an expert panel, the government is set to make a final decision, government and ruling bloc sources said. When the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan was in power in 2010, then Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, that if a situation arose in which Japan’s security could not be ensured without allowing a temporary port call by a U.S. vessel carrying nuclear weapons, the government of the day would have to make a decision at the risk of its political future and explain the decision to the public. The government is leaning toward incorporating the substance of Okada’s remarks in some form. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has advocated revising one of the three nonnuclear principles–not permitting the entry of nuclear weapons into Japan. The other two principles are not possessing and not producing nuclear weapons. At a meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee on Oct. 14, Takaichi hinted that Okada’s remarks could be included in the three key documents, saying that the wording of the revised documents was under consideration and that “there is room to examine Foreign Minister Okada’s remarks.” A high-ranking government official said explicitly mentioning the matter in the security documents would make the basis for such a decision easier to understand. “We are not changing the three nonnuclear principles themselves, but it will give the impression that something has changed,” a ruling coalition source said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
