U.S. Says Japan Free to Discuss Nuclear Option

The United States would not try to stifle any Japanese discussion on reconsidering the nation’s policy against nuclear weapons, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said today (see GSN, Oct. 25).

Some senior Japanese officials have recently suggested that leaders should discuss whether to move the nation away from the government’s long-standing “three nuclear principles” policy which prohibits Japan from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“What the Japanese talk about with themselves or with their government is up to the Japanese.  It is not up to the United States to decide what is appropriate or not appropriate for the Japanese to say,” Schieffer told reporters in Tokyo today.

Still, current Japanese policy is “not inconsistent with American foreign policy goals here,” he added.  “From our standpoint, we have been able to work under those guidelines for a long time and we see no necessity for changing that today” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Oct. 27).

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