Shintaro Ishihara (file photo)
Hardly after the 66th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara said Japan should perform simulated nuclear weapons tests to maintain its presence on the world stage.
Ishihara said at a press conference that the Obama administration has been conducting subcritical nuclear tests and computer simulations since 2010, even after Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. (The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s Stockpile Stewardship Management Program conducts subcritical nuclear tests to see if components such as uranium or plutonium degrade over time.)
Ishihara said: “Japan should do something similar to those simulations. Japan needs to send a message that it could possess nuclear weapons any time. We have a huge stockpile of plutonium.”
This quote seems to confirms my suspicion that Japan is a de facto nuclear state–it has acquired the technology and components for a nuclear weapon, but hasn’t assembled one yet.
Ishihara continued: “If we don’t show more military force, we’ll definitely lose our presence on the world stage. The U.S. is developing other weapons too, some of which rely on satellite positioning technology developed by Japan. We should consider developing weapons like that.”
Ishihara has apparently forgotten or doesn’t care that Japan’s constitution forbids the establishment of offensive military forces, and that Japan has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. But I suppose neither of those technicalities will prevent Japan from seeking a loophole if necessary.