PM Says Japan Won't Build Atomic Weapons
By JOSEPH COLEMAN
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Says Japan Will Not Build a Nuclear Bomb
TOKYO Oct 18, 2006 (AP)— Japan's prime minister struggled Wednesday to stifle talk of a move to build a nuclear bomb, a concept once considered unthinkable in the only nation ever attacked with atomic weapons. "The debate is finished," Shinzo Abe said.
He was adamant that his government will not even discuss the idea, underscoring how sensitive the topic remains more than 60 years after U.S. nuclear bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.
Abe made his testy declaration about debate being over just hours after his foreign minister, Taro Aso, told a parliamentary committee that he didn't see any problem with openly discussing whether Japan should have the bomb.
It was at least the third time since North Korea tested an atomic device Oct. 9 that Abe a defense hawk who came to office last month promising a more internationally assertive Japan has had to reassure jittery neighbors and an anxious U.S. that Tokyo won't abandon its postwar ban on nuclear weapons.
Abe made his first non-nuclear declaration last week in parliament. Then, over the weekend, ruling party official Shoichi Nakagawa suggested a debate about going nuclear "because countries with nuclear weapons don't get attacked," prompting further spin control by Abe on Monday.
On Wednesday, Aso gingerly approached the subject during testimony before a parliamentary committee, prefacing his comments by saying that Japan's non-nuclear stance would not change.
"When a neighboring country is going to have nuclear weapons, one can refuse to even consider the matter … but I think it is important to discuss the issue," he said, prompting Abe's sharp rejection of any debate on the matter.