Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has reiterated that it is crucial for Japan to debate the issue of nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered submarines “without taboos,” lamenting an atmosphere that he says frowns on such discussion.
“The idea that we aren’t even allowed to have a discussion on this matter is a bit at odds with my sense of crisis,” Koizumi said in a wide-ranging television interview that aired Monday evening.
The Japanese defense chief has repeatedly said the government is keeping all options on the table when it comes to two key issues: revising the country’s long-held “three nonnuclear principles” of not producing, possessing or hosting nuclear weapons and acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.
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