Storage of nuclear weapons in Okinawa ?

 March 6, 2018

Japanese official allegedly did not rule out building nuclear weapons storage site in Okinawa

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/03/06/national/politics-diplomacy/japanese-official-allegedly-not-rule-building-nuclear-weapons-storage-site-okinawa/#.Wp6FonwiGos

Kyodo

WASHINGTON – Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba did not rule out the possibility of a nuclear weapons storage site being built in Okinawa Prefecture in comments he allegedly made in 2009 when he was a minister at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, a U.S. researcher said Monday.

Gregory Kulacki, China project manager at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, cited a document he obtained dated Feb. 27, 2009, that summarized Akiba’s remarks at a U.S. congressional commission that year.

In response to a question on how Japan might view the construction of a nuclear weapons storage site in Okinawa or Guam, Akiba “stated that he found such a proposal persuasive,” according to the document.

In Tokyo, however, Foreign Minister Taro Kono denied that Akiba had made such a remark.

“The government has firmly maintained the three nonnuclear principles” of not possessing, not producing and not allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan, Kono said.