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Japan as a Nuclear State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Gavan McCormack
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The following text appears as chapter 8 in the just published book Client State: Japan in the American Embrace (New York and London, Verso), and is reproduced here by kind permission of the publishers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 8 , August 2007 , e4
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2007

References

Notes

[1] To quote only from the October 2005 statement, ‘US strike capabilities and the nuclear deterrence provided by the US remain an essential component to Japan's defense capabilities …’, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Security Consultative Committee Document, ‘US-Japan Alliance: Trans-formation and Realignment for the Future’, 29 October 2005. Accessed 20 December 2006.

[2] Morton Halperin, ‘The nuclear dimension of the US-Japan alliance’, Nautilus Institute, 1999 (accessed 20 May 2006); ‘Secret files expose Tokyo's double standard on nuclear policy’, Asahi Evening News, 25 August 1999.

[3] 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.

[4] Mohammed ElBaradei, ‘Saving ourselves from self-destruction’, New York Times, 12 February 2004.

[5] ‘60 nendai, 2 shusho ga “kaku busoron” Bei kobunsho de akiraka ni’, Asahi Shimbun, 1 August 2005.

[6] Andrew Mack, ‘Japan and the Bomb: a cause for concern?‘Asia-Pacific Magazine, no. 3 June 1996, pp. 5-9.

[7] Statement of 3 March 1999, quoted in Taoka Shunji, ‘Shuhen yuji no “kyoryoku” sukeru’, Asahi Shimbun, 3 March 1999.

[8] ‘Nishimura quits over nuclear arms remarks’, Daily Yomiuri, 21 October 1999.

[9] Yoshida Tsukasa, ‘“Kishi Nobusuke” o uketsugu “Abe Shinzo” no ayui chisei’, Gendai, September 2006, pp. 116-29, at p. 127.

[10] Dan Plesch, ‘Without the UN safety net, even Japan may go nuclear’, Guardian, 28 April 2003.

[11] Jimmy Carter, ‘Saving nonproliferation’, Washington Post, 28 March 2005.

[12] William Arkin, ‘Not just a last resort: A global plan with a nuclear option’, Washington Post, 15 May 2005.

[13] Chosun ilbo, (Seoul: Chosun ilbo), 6 June 2005.

[14] Ted Daley, ‘America and Iran: Three nuclear ironies’, Truthdig, 7 July 2006,. Accessed 25 July 2006.

[15] Robert McNamara, ‘Apocalypse Soon’, Foreign Policy, May-June 2005, reproduced in Japan Focus, 8 May 2005,

[16] ‘Government to ok India as N-state’, Yomiuri Shimbun, 10 January 2007.

[17] 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. (accessed 23 October 2005); and Umebayashi Hiromichi, ‘Nihon dokuji no hokatsuteki kaku gunshuku teian o’, Ronza, June 2005, pp. 188-93.

[18] Paul Rogers, ‘Britain's nuclear weapon fix’, and ‘Nuclear weapons: the oxygen of debate’, Open Democracy, 29 June and 29 December 2006. Accessed 10 January 2007.

[19] Rogers, ‘Nuclear weapons: the oxygen of debate’.

[20] Citizens' Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), ‘Cost of Nuclear Power in Japan’, Tokyo, 2006,. Accessed 10 January 2007.

[21] ‘Nuclear power for civilian and military use’, Le Monde Diplomatique, Planet in Peril (Arendal, Norway: UNEP/GRID-Arendal, 2006), p.16.

[22] ‘Genpatsu no seisui wakareme’, Asahi Shimbun, 6 June 2006.

[23] Michael Meacher, ‘Limited Reactions’, Guardian Weekly, 21-27 July 2006, p. 17.

[24] Quoted in ‘Genpatsu no seisui wakareme’, Asahi Shimbun, 6 June 2006.

[25] Tsukasa Kamata, ‘Huge tract for ITER sits vacant’, Japan Times, 25 November 2006.

[26] Iida Tetsuya, ‘Shizen enerugii fukyu o’, Asahi Shimbun, 8 June 2004.

[27] Many have been constructed on active tectonic faultlines where major earthquakes occur frequently. Leuren Moret, ‘Japan's deadly game of nuclear roulette’, Japan Times, 23 May 2004, revised version at Japan Focus, 29 November 2005.

[28] According to the ‘New National Energy Strategy’ published by the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. Keizai sangyosho, Shin Kokka Enerugii Senryaku, May 2006. Accessed 30 November 2006.

[29] ‘Safe storage of nuclear waste’, editorial, Japan Times, 25 July 2006.

[30] 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.

[31] Frank Barnaby and Shaun Burnie, Thinking the Unthinkable: Japanese Nuclear Power and Proliferation in East Asia (Oxford and Tokyo: Oxford Research Group and Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, 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.

[32] ‘Nuclear power for civil and military use’, Le Monde Diplomatique, p. 17.

[33] Barnaby and Burnie, Thinking the Unthinkable, p. 8.

[34] Ibid., p. 8.

[35] Mohammed ElBaradei, ‘Seven steps to raise world security’, Financial Times, 2 February 2005.

[36] Suzuki Manami, Kaku taikokuka suru Nihon (Tokyo: Heibonsha shinsho, 2006), p. 214.

[37] Director General, IAEA, ‘Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement in the Republicof Korea,‘ 11 November 2004 (Geneva: IAEA). Accessed 15 March 2007.

[38] Yoshioka Hitoshi, ‘Genpatsu wa “kaiko” ni atai suru no ka’, Asahi Shimbun, 21 November 2005.

[39] Such cost would amount to between one-half and two-thirds of the costs of reprocessing. Yoshioka, ‘Genpatsu wa “kaiko” …‘.

[40] 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.

[41] 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’ (Melbourne: Nautilus Institute at RMIT University, September 2006). Accessed 15 October 2006.

[42] Michael Casey, 'Asia embraces nuclear power, Seattle Times, 28 July 2006. US stocks of spent nuclear fuel amounted to 53,000 metric tonnes as of December 2005, projected to rise by 2010 to between 100,000 and 1,400,000 (sic). (US Department of Energy, May 2006).

[43] Monju experimental fast breeder was shut down from 1995 after leakage of a tonne 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 mixed 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.

[44] 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 selected for MOX fuel use - Fukui, Fukushima and Niigata.

[45] Burnie, ‘Proliferation Report’, p. 19.

[46] Takubo Masafumi, ‘Kadai wa New York de wa naku, Nihon ni aru’, Sekai, June 2005, pp. 142-51, at p. 151.

[47] H. A. Feiveson, Princeton University, statement at UN meeting, 24 May 2005. Accessed 12 July 2006.

[48] Eric Johnston, ‘Nuclear fuel plant not biz a usual’, Japan Times, 10 August 2004.

[49] Scientific American (Digital), May 1994. Accessed 3 December 2006.

[50] Yoshida Yoshihiko, ‘NPT o ketsuretsu saseta no wa Beikoku no tandoku kodoshugi’, Ronza, August 2005, pp. 154-9.

[51] CNIC, ‘Statement by CNIC and Greenaction about GNEP’, 11 July 2006.

[52] Ibid.

[53] Eric Johnston, ‘Safety concerns remain: one decade after accident, Monju may be reborn’, Japan Times, 9 December 2005.

[54] ‘New fast-breeder reactor to replace prototype Monju’, Asahi Shimbun, 27 December 2005.

[55] ‘Editorial: Pluthermal project’, Asahi Shimbun, 16 February 2006.

[56] Suzuki, p. 214. Plutonium stocks will reach sixty tonnes by 2010, and remain thereafter at above 50 tonnes.

[57] Hirata Tsuyoshi, ‘Shinso no kaku haikibutsu’, Shukan Kinyobi, 25 May 2003, pp. 38-41.

[58] 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.

[59] George Monbiot, ‘Dirty bombs waiting for a detonator’, Guardian, 11 June 2002.

[60] Jim Giles, ‘Nuclear power: Chernobyl and the future: when the price is right’, Nature, no. 440, 20 April 2006, pp. 984-6.

[61] Sato Eisaku, ‘Tachidomari kokuminteki giron o’, Asahi Shimbun, 24 May 2003.

[62] Barnaby and Burnie, Thinking the Unthinkable, p. 9.

[63] Umebayashi, ‘Nihon dokuji no’, p. 193.

[64] US Department of Energy, ‘The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’, updated July 2006.

[65] Geoff Elliott, ‘US backs Howard's nuclear vision’, The Australian, 17 August 2006.

[66] Paul Sheehan, ‘A thirsty world running dry’, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 2006.

[67] Anthony Albanese, ‘Twenty years on: lest we forget the lessons of Chernobyl’, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 April 2006.

[68] Citizens Nuclear Information Center (CNIC) and Green Action, ‘Japan should withdraw its opportunistic, cynical and impractical offer to cooperate with the US Global Nuclear Energy Partnership’, statement,10 July 2006. Accessed 1 October 2006.

[69] US Department of Energy, ‘The Global Nuclear Partnership’, p. v.

[70] ‘Kaku gijutsu kaihatsu, Bei “saidai 4 cho 7000 oku en”, Bei chokan kenkai, Nihon nado no kyoryoku kitai’, Chugoku Shimbun, 17 February 2006.

[71] CNIC and Green Action, ‘Japan should withdraw …‘.

[72] Michael Meacher, ‘Limited Reactions’, Guardian Weekly, 21-27 July 2006, p. 17.

[73] John Busby, ‘Why nuclear power is not the answer to global warming’, Power Switch, 25 May 2005,.