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Tokyo has offered to host an international conference on global nuclear disarmament early next year, in response to a suggestion made by Obama.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, speaking in Berlin, Germany, this week, said Japan ''hopes to grasp the historic opportunity” to reduce nuclear arms.
During an April 5 speech in Prague, the Czech Republic, Obama said, "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act … I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”
While acknowledging that the complete elimination of nuclear weapons might not be achieved in his lifetime, Obama said the United States would “reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, and urge others to do the same.”
Most Japanese are in accord with this approach. As the only nation that has experienced the devastation a nuclear weapon can cause, Japan has submitted a resolution for a nuclear-free world to the U.N. General Assembly every year for the past 15 years.
In direct opposition to this trend, of course, are the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran. Pyongyang’s plans are of special concern to Tokyo.
"Unfortunately, the security environment in Northeast Asia is becoming increasingly tough," Aso said during his speech at a Berlin university on Monday. "North Korea ignored the voices of the international society, and is pushing ahead with development of nuclear weapons and missiles.”
But Japan also feels another threat across the Yellow Sea. Whenever Japanese officials talk about security issues in East Asia, China is also specified.
In his Berlin speech Aso also voiced concern over China's continuous double-digit increases in its military spending over the past 20 years, and its lack of transparency. He referred to China's nuclear arms modernization programs as one reason to push for disarmament.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone had outlined 11 benchmarks toward nuclear disarmament, singling out China's ambitious nuclear arms programs.
Speaking at the annual convention of the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo on April 27, Nakasone said, "While China's strategic orientation is unclear, it has taken steps towards modernization of nuclear armaments without any sign of nuclear reduction so far."
While expressing appreciation to the other four nations that retain nuclear arms under the current Non Proliferation Treaty system – namely the United States, Russia, Britain and France – for their efforts to reduce their nuclear armaments and to maintain transparency, Nakasone categorically criticized China for its failure to disclose nuclear-related information.
"It is necessary to break the vicious circle in which the lack of transparency over nuclear armaments fuels suspicions and worries among neighboring countries, which in turn trigger a military buildup," he said.
Ironically, on the same day that Obama spoke in Prague, Japan was on high military alert as North Korea test-fired a long-range missile, which flew over the Japanese archipelago and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Since Pyongyang had issued warnings about the missile's planned trajectory, with the first stage of the rocket to land in the Sea of Japan and the second in the Pacific Ocean, Japan’s Self Defense Forces and the governments of areas adjacent to the landing zones and under the missile's flight path were all on high alert.
This was a rare opportunity for the Self Defense Forces and the Ministry of Defense to demonstrate to Japan’s citizenry and to the world its national security preparedness.
Though the real danger of North Korea's nuclear capability, still in its developing stage, is in doubt among military specialists, the Japanese people are very apprehensive when it comes to nuclear weapons in their neighborhood. Deep in their collective memory and their modern imagination is the nightmare experienced in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities on which U.S. bombers dropped atomic bombs in World War II, killing tens of thousands of defenseless civilians, women and children.
Moveover, thanks to North Korea's nuclear venture coupled with its menacing threats, there are growing voices – though still limited and muffled – calling for the country to renounce its self-imposed pledge not to produce nuclear arms.
Protected under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, successive Japanese governments have renewed their commitment to the "three non-nuclear principles" of not possessing, not producing and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons.
One of the most vocal advocates for a nuclear Japan, retired Air Force General Toshio Tamogami preaches the merits of debating the development of nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Since his forced retirement due to his hawkish remarks, he has been busily engaged in making nationwide speech tours.
This is what Russia and China are most concerned about, points out Shigeki Hakamada, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo and a leading academic on Russian affairs.
"As North Korea's nuclear threats become more tangible, Russia is apprehensive that Japan may take a turn towards its own nuclear defense," said Hakamada. Russians are aware that, once such a decision is made, Japan is capable, economically and technologically, of producing nuclear weapons fairly quickly, he added.
If North Korea and China choose to pursue their own nuclear weapons development while taking for granted Japan's non-nuclear policy, they will have only themselves to blame if Japan decides to abandon that policy. They will have once again set off a spiraling nuclear arms race, which is the last thing anybody really wants.
