A top Japanese government official whose comments that the nation might one day possess nuclear weapons sought to climb down from his statement as lawmakers expressed disgust on Sunday.
”My remarks were completely my own, but (how they were interpreted) was not my intention,” the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Asahi Shimbun on Saturday.
”The current cabinet is absolutely not considering changing the three nuclear principles,” he told the paper.
Japan, the only nation in the world to have suffered an atomic bomb attack, has maintained three non-nuclear principles of ”not producing, not possessing and not allowing nuclear weapons into the country.”
But a close aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said; ”the principles are just like the constitution… in the face of calls to amend the constitution, amendment of the principles is also likely.”
On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said it was possible for Japan to possess nuclear weapons if it ”restricts military activity to self-defence.”
Opposition and ruling coalition lawmakers heaped scorn on the anonymous official’s comments on a Sunday morning talk show on Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK).
”It says clearly in our constitution that we cannot maintain such weapons,” Communist Party lawmaker Hideo Kijima told the show. ”As the only country to suffer a nuclear attack and given the world’s progress in reducing and eliminating nuclear arms, this outrageous comment is absolutely unforgivable,” he said.
Other opposition members called for an inquiry. Ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Fumio Kyuma, a former head of the Japan Defence Agency agreed. ”This matter should be cleared up in a public forum,” he said on the program.
Late on Friday, Koizumi denied any plan to revise the decades-long policy.
”Our country has the ability to make and possess (nuclear weapons), but it is meaningful not to possess them,” said Koizumi, who returned from Seoul Saturday morning.
”It is meaningful for Japan to maintain its values by becoming an economic power instead of a military one,” said, Koizumi who had been at the opening of the football World Cup Friday which Japan is co-hosting with South Korea. – Sapa-AFP