Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering including in its three key security-related documents an exception to allow the entry of nuclear weapons in emergencies, while maintaining Japan's three nonnuclear principles, informed sources said Tuesday.
The government is mulling the proposal ahead of the planned revisions to the three security-related documents at the end of this year.
After taking into account working-level talks between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as discussions by an expert panel, the government is set to make a final decision, government and ruling bloc sources said.
When the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan was in power in 2010, then Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, that if a situation arose in which Japan's security could not be ensured without allowing a temporary port call by a U.S. vessel carrying nuclear weapons, the government of the day would have to make a decision at the risk of its political future and explain the decision to the public.
The government is leaning toward incorporating the substance of Okada's remarks in some form.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]