The Foreign Ministry released a report Monday effectively acknowledging that Japan discussed the possibility of going nuclear with West Germany in 1969, despite issuing a key declaration in 1967 stating that it opposed the production, possession and presence of nuclear weapons
The report said that according to diplomatic papers from West Germany, Foreign Ministry officials met with their West German counterparts in the resort town of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Feb. 4 to 5, 1969, and hinted at possessing nuclear arms and sought support from West Germany.
The ministry also questioned Egon Bahr, who was head of the German Foreign Ministry's policy planning office and was at the 1969 meeting. As he told it, he heard the Japanese making a statement there suggesting Japan may try to get nuclear weapons, the ministry said.
Citing the documents from West Germany, the report said a diplomat who headed the Japanese delegation told West Germany that Japan could make nuclear weapons in the event of a threat from the Korean Peninsula, and that Japan and West Germany should cooperate to be free from the United States.
The report indicates that government officials seriously discussed whether Japan should go nuclear before signing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 1970.
In 1967, Japan declared what are now called the "three nonnuclear principles" of not producing, not possessing, and not allowing the entry of nuclear weapons into the country, and a resolution to abide by them was adopted by the Diet in 1971.
The ministry released the report and the documents concerned after receiving instructions from Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara on Oct. 4 to look into a TV program aired the previous day by NHK.
Quoting a former senior foreign ministry official, NHK reported that at the 1969 meeting, Japan told to West Germany that it may have to consider acquiring nuclear arms in 10 to 15 years, and that it had a technology for extracting nuclear materials to create nuclear warheads.
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