Japan reaffirms no-nukes pledge after official floats weapons idea

TOKYO – Japan reaffirmed its decades-old pledge never to possess nuclear weapons on Dec 19, after local media reported that a senior security official suggested it should have them to deter potential aggressors.

The unnamed official ​said Japan needed nuclear weapons because of a worsening security environment but acknowledged that such a move would be politically difficult, public broadcaster NHK and other outlets reported, describing the official as ​being from ​Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s office. 

At a regular press briefing in Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said Japan’s nuclear policy had not changed.

There is a

growing political and public willingness in Japan to loosen its three non-nuclear principles

​not to possess, develop or allow nuclear weapons, a Reuters investigation published in August found.

While it remains a highly sensitive subject in the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, doubts over the reliability of US security guarantees under President Donald Trump and growing threats from nuclear-armed neighbours China, Russia and North Korea have re-ignited the debate.

Some lawmakers within Ms Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have said the US should be allowed to bring nuclear weapons into ​Japan on submarines or other platforms to reinforce deterrence.

Ms Takaichi in November stirred debate by declining to say whether there would be any changes to the three principles when a new defence strategy in 2026 is formulated. 

“Putting these trial balloons out creates an opportunity to start to build consensus around the direction to move on changes in security policy,” said Professor Stephen Nagy of the politics and international studies department at Tokyo’s International Christian University. 

Beijing’s assertiveness and growing missile cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang are “creating the momentum ​to really change Japan’s thinking about security”, he added.

Senior ruling-party lawmaker and former defence and foreign minister Taro Kono said on Dec 19 that Japan should not shy away from a broader debate on the pros and cons of acquiring nuclear weapons.

Such discussions have long been taboo due to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II and the country’s pacifist Constitution adopted after its defeat.

Nihon Hidankyo, a group of atomic bomb survivors that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2024 for efforts to achieve a nuclear-free world, said in a statement that it “can never tolerate such a remark”.

The issue also risks drawing ​ire from neighbouring countries, including regional security rival China.

“Should the information prove accurate, the situation would be extremely grave,” Mr Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a regular briefing.

Tokyo-Beijing relations have soured since Ms Takaichi in November said a Chinese attack on Taiwan that also threatened Japan could trigger a military response. REUTERS