Report slams Tokyo's nuclear weapon aims

A report released by leading Chinese think tanks on disarmament and the nuclear industry has called on the international community to closely check and counter the rising nuclear weapon ambitions of Japan's right-wing forces.

The report, titled "Nuclear Ambitions of Japan's Right-Wing Forces: A Serious Threat to World Peace", urged nations to "thwart any dangerous attempt to revive Japanese militarism and to jointly safeguard the postwar international order and the international nuclear nonproliferation regime".

The China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and the China Institute of Nuclear Industry Strategy released the report on Thursday in Beijing.

Experts noted that recent months have seen a number of dangerous attempts by Tokyo, including Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's push for revising the country's three nonnuclear principles — not possessing, not producing and not allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory.

In an interview with Japanese media last month, a senior Japanese Cabinet official in charge of security affairs claimed that the nation should possess its own nuclear weapons.

When asked by China Daily about Tokyo's intention and how countries, including China should respond, Dai Huaicheng, secretary-general of CACDA, said: "The recent series of irresponsible statements (by Japanese officials) are not isolated incidents. It is not convincing to say that these are just personal words and deeds. These comprise a carefully crafted move aimed at testing the bottom line of international fairness and justice, as well as the bottom line of peace-loving people."

According to the report, Japan currently "has established a complete nuclear fuel cycle and possesses relatively advanced nuclear industrial capabilities, enabling it to produce weapons-grade plutonium".

Zhao Xuelin, a senior engineer at CINIS, said, "Japan also possesses operational platforms capable of delivering nuclear weapons, as well as the technical foundations for the development of nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers."

Luo Qingping, chairman of CINIS, said that Japan's right-wing forces attempt to revise the three nonnuclear principles and advocate possessing nuclear weapons, which "gravely challenges the authority and effectiveness of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, undermining the efforts of upholding the international nuclear nonproliferation regime".

The 2026 Review Conference of the Parties to the NPT will take place from April 27 to May 22 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

In a 10-point recommendation, the think tanks' report called on the 2026 NPT review conference to carefully consider the matter about Japan, and it urged Takaichi, the prime minister, to clarify her "dangerous nuclear-related remarks".

The report also called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to strengthen its checks on Japan's nuclear material and activities.

Guo Xiaobing, director of the Center for Arms Control Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that Japan has portrayed itself as the sole victim of atomic bombings during World War II, and yet has simultaneously pursued over the long term and maintained its capability to develop and produce nuclear weapons.

zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn