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Nuclear arms card for Japan
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/04/29/commentary/nuclear-arms-card-for-japan/#.UX2l-LWG0rU
COMMENTARY / JAPAN | SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nuclear arms card for Japan
APR 29, 2013
The United States is still haunted by a nightmare of 2006, says an insider of the Defense Ministry. But the “nightmare” he refers to is not the first nuclear test by North Korea in October that year, but rather an internal report compiled by the Japanese government a month earlier on “the possibility of domestically producing nuclear weapons.” North Korea carried out its third nuclear test on Feb. 12, 2013.
The U.S. is nervous about Japan, according to the insider. It is not publicly known that the Foreign Ministry has been conducting studies clandestinely on potential development of nuclear arms.
<snip>
A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said that the crisis surrounding this country has “moved to a different stage” in the wake of North Korea’s latest long-range rocket firing and nuclear test.
<snip>
Another reporter of a major national newspaper recalled a meeting last September between then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in which she urged him to rethink his plan to give a Cabinet endorsement to the policy of totally eliminating Japan’s nuclear power generation during the 2030s.
This reporter quoted a conservative Diet member of the Democratic Party of Japan as saying that a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official admitted not only that Clinton’s move apparently stemmed from the fear of losing benefits emanating from the bilateral Cooperation Agreement on Nuclear Energy but also that Japan should avoid a situation at any cost in which Japan will lose an option to possess nuclear weapons.
<snip>
This is an abridged translation of an article from the April issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic scenes.
COMMENTARY / JAPAN | SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nuclear arms card for Japan
APR 29, 2013
The United States is still haunted by a nightmare of 2006, says an insider of the Defense Ministry. But the “nightmare” he refers to is not the first nuclear test by North Korea in October that year, but rather an internal report compiled by the Japanese government a month earlier on “the possibility of domestically producing nuclear weapons.” North Korea carried out its third nuclear test on Feb. 12, 2013.
The U.S. is nervous about Japan, according to the insider. It is not publicly known that the Foreign Ministry has been conducting studies clandestinely on potential development of nuclear arms.
<snip>
A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said that the crisis surrounding this country has “moved to a different stage” in the wake of North Korea’s latest long-range rocket firing and nuclear test.
<snip>
Another reporter of a major national newspaper recalled a meeting last September between then Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in which she urged him to rethink his plan to give a Cabinet endorsement to the policy of totally eliminating Japan’s nuclear power generation during the 2030s.
This reporter quoted a conservative Diet member of the Democratic Party of Japan as saying that a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official admitted not only that Clinton’s move apparently stemmed from the fear of losing benefits emanating from the bilateral Cooperation Agreement on Nuclear Energy but also that Japan should avoid a situation at any cost in which Japan will lose an option to possess nuclear weapons.
<snip>
This is an abridged translation of an article from the April issue of Sentaku, a monthly magazine covering Japanese political, social and economic scenes.
