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Japan ‘cannot avoid’ nuclear weapons debate, defense chief Koizumi says

Japan Times, By Jesse Johnson, 19 July 26

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has urged Japan to more openly debate nuclear weapons’ role in the country’s defense, a rare instance of a sitting Cabinet member broaching the highly contentious issue.

“While this is a difficult issue for Japan to discuss, one topic we cannot avoid is nuclear weapons,” Koizumi said during an online news program recorded Friday ahead of a trip to Europe.

Koizumi’s remarks come as the government weighs updates to key documents outlining Japan’s security policy — including a possible revision of the country’s decades-old pledge not to produce, possess or host nuclear weapons.

Formulated in 1967 and known formally as the country’s “three non-nuclear principles,” the pledge has consistently been upheld by governments since.

Senior government officials have traditionally shied away from public remarks on nuclear arms-related issues, as Japan — the sole country to have been attacked with the devastating weapons — retains strong sensitivities more than 80 years after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

According to an April poll by the Asahi Shimbun daily, 75% of those surveyed said the principles should be maintained, while 21% said they should be revised.

In December, a senior government official who advises Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on security triggered a firestorm after expressing a personal opinion that Japan should have nuclear weapons.

Still, talk of allowing U.S. nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan has grown after Takaichi sidestepped a question about her commitment to maintaining the pledge in its entirety last November in parliament. 

In his comments, Koizumi said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had prompted France to boost its nuclear capabilities and pushed Finland to OK the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory, dramatic shifts that he said were “being advanced under the serious assumption of a potential emergency.”

“Considering this, I believe we must make even greater efforts to explain that the security environment in which Japan finds itself requires us to approach every policy with a strong sense of crisis, discussing and advancing them without any taboos,” Koizumi said……………………………………………………………………………………………… https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/07/19/japan/politics/koizumi-japan-nuclear-weapons-debate/

August 8, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, weapons and war