Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a press convention on the Prime Minister’s Office in Tokyo, Japan, July 27, 2026. /CFP
Editor’s observe:Â Cao Cong, a particular commentator for CGTN, is a doctoral candidate on the School of Global and Regional Studies, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The article displays the writer’s opinions and never essentially the views of CGTN.
The newest public opinion ballot carried out by the Japan Association for Public Opinion Research confirmed that 76% of respondents help sustaining Japan’s Three Non-Nuclear Principles – not possessing, not producing, and never allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons, whereas 77% oppose any “nuclear sharing” association with the United States. The findings reveal a rising disconnect between public opinion and the path of the Japanese authorities’s nuclear coverage.
Despite clear public opposition, the Japanese authorities has repeatedly signaled its intention to rethink the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. In July, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi brazenly acknowledged in a web-based program that Japan ought to focus on nuclear-related insurance policies “without any taboo.” Such strikes have triggered deep considerations each inside Japan and internationally over the long run path of Japan’s nuclear coverage.
The Three Non-Nuclear Principles represent a cornerstone of Japan’s postwar nuclear coverage. As the one nation on the earth to have suffered atomic bomb assaults throughout World War II, Japan has lengthy used these rules as the muse for opposing nuclear battle and selling nuclear disarmament.
However, in recent times, Tokyo’s safety technique has moved more and more in a rightward path, whereas the spirit of pacifism enshrined in its structure has been repeatedly weakened. Japan has repeatedly elevated its protection price range, allowed exports of deadly weapons, and developed the so-called “counterstrike capability,” undermining its postwar “exclusively defense-oriented policy.” Reopening discussions on the Three Non-Nuclear Principles represents one other vital manifestation of the rightward shift in Japan’s safety technique.
Some conservative political forces in Japan are utilizing the modifications within the regional safety setting as a pretext to name for stronger Japan-US safety cooperation and to help the US “nuclear umbrella,” the “strategic guarantee” by the United States to make use of its nuclear arsenal to defend non-nuclear allied states. They help the Takaichi administration’s reconsideration of the precept of “not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons,” arguing that this precept might constrain the effectiveness of US nuclear deterrence.
These forces have tried to invoke the logic of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) to justify revising Japan’s nuclear coverage. However, this logic doesn’t apply to Japan. MAD was based mostly on strategic stability between two rival nuclear powers possessing large-scale nuclear arsenals, with deterrence maintained by making certain that neither aspect might survive the results of a nuclear assault. Japan, as a non-nuclear state below the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, doesn’t possess an impartial nuclear deterrent. Moreover, Japan’s Atomic Energy Basic Law stipulates that the analysis, growth and utilization of nuclear vitality shall be restricted to peaceable functions.
It is price noting that Japanese right-wing forces have additionally been repeatedly selling the so-called “China nuclear threat.” In truth, China has constantly pursued peaceable growth, adopted a defensive nationwide protection coverage, and firmly adhered to a no-first-use nuclear coverage. It has maintained its nuclear capabilities on the minimal degree required for nationwide safety, and shunned participating in a nuclear arms race with any nation.
China’s nuclear coverage isn’t directed at any particular nation and doesn’t pose a nuclear risk to Japan. Portraying China’s regular nationwide protection growth as a so-called “nuclear threat” is actually a political pretext constructed by Japan to advance its navy enlargement.
What Japan ought to do is to mirror on the impression that its radical safety coverage shift may have on regional stability. If Japan, which already possesses nearly all of the supplies and technological capabilities needed for producing nuclear weapons, relaxes its nuclear coverage restrictions additional, it is going to inevitably improve regional safety uncertainty.
Signs at a protest rally in opposition to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s insurance policies in entrance of the National Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan, July 10, 2026. /Xinhua
The hole between authorities coverage and public opinion has turn out to be more and more evident. The ballot confirmed {that a} clear majority of Japanese residents proceed to help preserving the Three Non-Nuclear Principles and reject any transfer towards nuclear sharing.
Opposition has additionally come from native governments and civil society. Since the Takaichi administration got here to energy, 82 native assemblies have submitted statements calling for the preservation of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles. The governors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prefectures, which bore the brunt of the historic nuclear bombings, have each explicitly opposed any revision of the rules, and the Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors, Nihon Hidankyo, has additionally argued that Japan mustn’t abandon the postwar dedication to peace.
Against this backdrop, the Japanese authorities must confront a elementary query: Can nationwide safety be achieved solely by way of navy enlargement and nuclear deterrence? As the one nation to have suffered nuclear assaults, Japan possesses a singular historic expertise and bears a particular worldwide accountability. The position it ought to play is to advertise nuclear disarmament and forestall nuclear proliferation, slightly than regularly transfer towards nuclear competitors.
If Japan abandons the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, it won’t solely injury the peace-oriented nation picture that it has cultivated for many years, however might also undermine the worldwide nuclear non-proliferation regime. It would additionally ship a destructive sign to the area and improve the chance of strategic miscalculation.
What Asia wants isn’t an escalation of nuclear arms deterrence competitors however efforts to scale back nuclear dangers and keep peace and stability. Japan ought to acknowledge that regional safety can’t be constructed on mutual suspicion and navy enlargement. Upholding its dedication to peace and safeguarding the worldwide nuclear non-proliferation regime would higher serve Japan’s pursuits and meet the shared expectations of nations throughout the area.
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Source: CGTN