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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
For 60 years the world has faced no greater threat than nuclear weapons. Japan, as a nuclear victim country, with “three non-nuclear principles” (non-production, non-possession, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan) and its “Peace Constitution,” had unique credentials to play a positive role in helping the world find a solution, yet its record has been consistently pro-nuclear, that is to say, pro-nuclear energy, pro-the nuclear cycle, and, pro-nuclear weapons. This paper elaborates on Japan's aspiration to become a nuclear state, arguing that attention should be paid to Rokkasho, Tsuruga, and Hamaoka, the places at the heart of Japan's present and future nuclear plans, no less than to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose names represent the horror of its nuclear past.
[1] Originally delivered as a lecture at Cornell University, 25 October 2007, this paper develops further points made in a chapter of my recent book Client State: Japan in the American Embrace (London and New York, Verso, 2007).
[2] “60 nendai, 2 shusho ga ‘kaku busoron’ Bei kobunsho de akiraka ni,” Asahi shimbun, 1 August 2005.
[3] Andrew Mack, “Japan and the Bomb: a cause for concern?” Asia-Pacific Magazine, No. 3 June 1996, pp. 5-9.
[4] Statement of 3 March 1999 (quoted in Taoka Shunji, “Shuhen yuji no ‘kyoryoku’ sukeru,” Asahi shimbun, 3 March 1999.).
[5] “Nishimura quits over nuclear arms remarks,” Daily Yomiuri Online, 21 October 1999.
[6] Yoshida Tsukasa, “‘Kishi Nobusuke’ o uketsugu ‘Abe Shinzo’ no ayui chisei,” Gendai, September 2006, pp. 116-129, at p. 127.
[7] To quote only from the October 2005 statement, “U.S. strike capabilities and the nuclear deterrence provided by the U.S. remain an essential component to Japan's defense capabilities…” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Security Consultative Committee Document, “U.S.-Japan Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future,” 29 October 2005.
[8] Morton Halperin, “The nuclear dimension of the U.S.-Japan alliance,” Nautilus Institute, 1999.; “Secret files expose Tokyo's double standard on nuclear policy,” Asahi Evening News, 25 August 1999.
[9] Conplan refers to the global strike plans under which Stratcom (Strategic Command, Omaha) deals with “imminent” threats from countries such as North Korea or Iran by both conventional and nuclear “full-spectrum” options, under President Bush's January 2003 classified directive.
(William Arkin, “Not Just A Last Resort? A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option,” Washington Post, Sunday, May 15, 2005.)
[10] Mohammed ElBaradei, “Saving ourselves from self-destruction,” New York Times, 12 February 2004.
[11] Dan Plesch, “Without the UN safety net, even Japan may go nuclear,” The Guardian, 28 April 2003.
[12] William Arkin, “Not just a last resort: A global plan with a nuclear option,” Washington Post, 15 May 2005.
[13] Chosun ilbo, 6 June 2005.
[14] Robert McNamara, “Apocalypse Soon,” Foreign Policy, May-June 2005, reproduced in Japan Focus, 8 May 2005.
[15] For outlines of a “Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone,” see Hiromichi Umebayashi, “A Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone,” Northeast Asia Peace and Security Network, Special Report, 11 August 2005. and Umebayashi Hiromichi, “Nihon dokuji no hokatsuteki kaku gunshuku teian o,” Ronza, June 2005, pp. 188-193.
[16] Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), “Cost of Nuclear Power in Japan,” Tokyo, 2006.
[17] “Nuclear power for civilian and military use,” Le Monde Diplomatique, Planet in Peril, Arendal Norway, UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 2006, p.16.
[18] Frank Barnaby and James Kemp, “Too hot to handle: The future of civil nuclear Power,” Briefing Paper, Oxford Research Group, July 2007.
[19] Quoted in “Genpatsu no seisui wakareme,” Asahi shimbun, 6 June 2006.
[20] “Genpatsu no seisui wakareme,” Asahi shimbun, 6 June 2006.
[21] Michael Meacher, “Limited Reactions,” Guardian Weekly, 21-27 July 2006, p. 17.
[22] Tsukasa Kamata, “Huge tract for ITER sits vacant,” Japan Times, 25 November 2006.
[23] Iida Tetsunari, “Shizen enerugii fukyu o,” Asahi shimbun, 8 June 2004, and “Shizen enerugii nanose,” Asahi shimbun, 15 April 2007.
[24] According to the “New National Energy Strategy” published by the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry in May 2006. Keizai sangyosho, Shin Kokka Enerugii Senryaku, May 2006.
[25] “Safe storage of nuclear waste,” Editorial, Japan Times, 25 July 2006.
[26] Sogo shigen enerugii chosakai, denki jigyo bunkakai, genshiryoku bukai (Subcommittee on Nuclear Energy Policy, Advisory Committee on Energy Policy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Genshiryoku rikkoku keikaku (Report on Plan to Build a Nuclear Energy Based Nation), draft, 8 August 2006.
[27] Frank Barnaby and Shaun Burnie, Thinking the Unthinkable: Japanese nuclear power and proliferation in East Asia, Oxford Research Group and Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Oxford and Tokyo, 2005, p. 17. (Around three-quarters of that is presently being processed in Britain's Sellafield and will be returned to Japan in due course. Eric Johnston, “Nuclear foes want Rokkasho and Monju on UN nonproliferation agenda,” Japan Times, 2 April 2005.)
[28] “Nuclear power for civil and military use,” Le Monde Diplomatique, cit, p. 17.
[29] Barnaby and Burnie, p. 8.
[30] Ibid., p. 8.
[31] Mohammed ElBaradei, “Seven steps to raise world security,” The Financial Times, 2 February 2005.
[32] For 2007 estimate, David Albright and Paul Brannan “The North Korean plutonium stock, February 2007,” Institute for Science and International Security, 20 February 2007.
[33] Yoshioka Hitoshi, “Genpatsu wa ‘kaiko’ ni atai suru no ka,” Asahi shimbun, evening edition, 21 November 2005.
[34] Such cost would amount to between one half and two-thirds of the costs of reprocessing. Yoshioka, cit.
[35] Shaun Burnie, “Proliferation Report: sensitive nuclear technology and plutonium technologies in the Republic of Korea and Japan, international collaboration and the need for a comprehensive fissile material treaty,” Paper presented to the International Conference on Proliferation Challenges in East Asia, National Assembly, Seoul, 28 April 2005, p. 18.
[36] Estimate by Shaun Burnie, Greenpeace International, personal communication, 4 September 2006. For table showing projected spent fuel waste accumulation to 2050, see Tatsujiro Suzuki, “Global Nuclear Future: A Japanese Perspective,” September 2006. Nautilus Institute at RMIT University, Melbourne.
[37] Michael Casey, “Asia embraces nuclear power, Seattle Times, 28 July 2006. US stocks of spent nuclear fuel amounted to 53,000 metric tons as of December 2005, projected to rise by 2010 to between 100,000 and 1,400,000 (sic). (U.S. Department of Energy, May 2006).
[38] Kamanaka Hitomi, with Norma Field, Discussion, University of Chicago, 18 April 2007 (Text courtesy Norma Field).
[39] Mizoguchi Kenya, “Shuto-ken ni mo yatte kuru – Rokkasho saishori kojo no hoshano osen,” Shukan kinyobi, 24 August 2007, pp. 14-15.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Monju experimental fast breeder was shut down from 1995 after leakage of a ton of liquid sodium from the cooling system; two workers were killed, and hundreds exposed to radiation, in a 1999 accident at Tokaimura fuel processing plant when workers carelessly mixing materials in a bucket, causing criticality and near catastrophe; five more were killed when sprayed with superheated steam from a corroded cooling system pipe in a 2004 accident at Mihama.
[42] Plans for large-scale plutonium use in the form of mixed oxide fuel (MOX) collapsed in 1999-2001 when it was revealed by Japanese environmental groups that vital quality control data for fuel delivered to Kansai Electric by British Nuclear Fuels had been deliberately falsified. The effect of this was to galvanize opposition in three Prefectures slated for MOX fuel use – Fukui, Fukushima and Niigata.
[43] Burnie, p. 19.
[44] Takubo Masafumi, “Kadai wa New York de wa naku, Nihon ni aru,” Sekai, June 2005, 142-51, at p. 151.
[45] H.A. Feiveson, Princeton University, Statement at UN meeting, 24 May 2005.
[46] Eric Johnston, “Nuclear fuel plant not biz a usual,” Japan Times, 10 August 2004.
[47] Scientific American (Digital), May 1994.
[48] Yoshida Yoshihiko, “NPT o ketsuretsu saseta no wa Beikoku no tandoku kodoshugi,” Ronza, August 2005, pp. 154-9.
[49] CNIC, “Statement by CNIC and Greenaction about GNEP,” 11 July 2006.
[50] CNIC, “Statement by CNIC and Greenaction about GNEP,” 11 July 2006.
[51] Eric Johnston, “Nuclear plants rural Japan's economic fix,” Japan Times, 4 September 2007.
[52] “New fast-breeder reactor to replace prototype Monju,” Asahi shimbun, 27 December 2005.
[53] “Editorial – Pluthermal project,” Asahi shimbun, 16 February 2006.
[54] Hirata Tsuyoshi, “Shinso no kaku haikibutsu,” Shukan kinyobi, 25 May 2003, pp. 38-41.
[55] Although such discharge only began in March 2006, seawater levels of radioactivity soon rose, sparking protests from the Governor of Iwate prefecture (into which the currents from Rokkasho flow) and local fishermen. (CNIC, “Active tests at the Rokkasho Reprocessing plant,” June 2006. and Koyama Hideyuki, “Sanriku no umi ni hoshano hoshutsu nodo wa genpatsu no 2700 bai,” Shukan kinyobi, 19 May 2006, p. 5.
[56] George Monbiot, “Dirty bombs waiting for a detonator,” The Guardian, 11 June 2002.
[57] Jim Giles, “Nuclear power: Chernobyl and the future: when the price is right,” Nature, No. 440, 20 April 2006, pp. 984-986.
[58] Barnaby and Burnie, p. 9.
[59] US Department of Energy, “The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership,” updated July 2006.
[60] Geoff Elliott, “US backs Howard's nuclear vision,” The Australian, 17 August 2006.
[61] Paul Sheehan, “A thirsty world running dry,” Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 2006.
[62] Anthony Albanese, “Twenty years on: lest we forget the lessons of Chernobyl,” Sydney Morning Herald, 26 April 2006.
[63] US Department of Energy, p. v.
[64] “Kaku gijutsu kaihatsu, Bei ‘saidai 4 cho 7000 oku en,‘ Bei chokan kenkai, Nihon nado no kyoryoku kitai,” Chugoku shimbun, 17 February 2006.
[65] Ian Lowe, “Heeding the warning signs,” The Weekend Australian, 7-9 September 2007.
[66] John Busby, “Why nuclear power is not the answer to global warming,” Power Switch, 25 May 2005.
[67] “Malpractices at Japanese nuclear power plants,” Protest Statement by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, 2 April 2007.
[68] Eric Prideaux, quoting from Greenpeace France's “Wind vs Nuclear 2003,” “Atomic power at any cost?” Japan Times, 5 September 2007.
[69] David McNeill, “Shaken to the core, Japan's nuclear program battered by Niigata quake,” Japan Focus, 1 August 2007.
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