China Fears Japan Is Pursuing Nuclear Weapons

Fact or fiction? Beijing has just released a 30-page report urging the international community to take concrete and strong measures against Japan’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

As the only nation to have ever suffered nuclear attacks, Tokyo has been staunchly anti-nuclear weapons since WWII.

But China believes that stance has changed. “Japan may already have produced weapons-grade plutonium in secret and has the technological and economic capabilities to achieve nuclear armament in a short period of time,” the report said.

It also cited a remark made by former President Joe Biden that Japan had the capacity to have nuclear weapons “virtually overnight.”

And Japan has the “operational platforms” — namely, advanced combat aircraft and, increasingly, missiles — capable of delivering nuclear weapons, the report correctly adds.

So, is this just fear-mongering propaganda against Japan due to its increasing militarization in response to China’s massive and continuing military buildup and regional aggression, not to mention growing North Korean nuclear saber-rattling?

Or is there something to the claim? I argue that it is both.

China is in an information war with Japan, as its new hardline Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently warned Japan would consider a Chinese attack on Taiwan an “existential threat” to Japan.

This, as Japan continues to rapidly shed its post-WWII inhibitions and prohibitions on military force.

But Japan is also likely ramping up existing latent capabilities to quickly build and deploy nuclear weapons if deemed necessary, especially in light of China’s rapidly expanding nuclear forces.

Both Takaichi and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have suggested revisiting Japan’s nuclear policy. Takaichi has also shown her openness to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

In December last year, a senior official in charge of security at the prime minister’s office was also reported to have told reporters on condition of non-attribution, “Ultimately, one’s own country is defended by oneself. Japan should also possess nuclear weapons.”

A few years back, I wrote about Japan’s “nuke in a basement,” the idea that Tokyo, as an early signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, already has all the necessary components and technology to make nuclear weapons but was simply storing them in the basement for a rainy day.

In this scenario, Japan could assemble and deploy numerous nuclear weapons in a matter of six months. And whether they actually have the latent capability or not, they can have it, and China knows it. And Japan is happy to let adversaries like China and North Korea believe it is part of the nuclear club, because it may have a “bomb in the basement.”

Back in 2014, NBC News reported that according to “a senior Japanese government official deeply involved in the country’s nuclear energy program, Japan has been able to build nuclear weapons ever since it launched a plutonium breeder reactor and a uranium enrichment plant 30 years ago.”

“Japan already has the technical capability, and has had it since the 1980s,” said the official. He said that once Japan had more than five to 10 kilograms of plutonium, the amount needed for a single weapon, it had “already gone over the threshold,” and had a nuclear deterrent.

Japan now has 9 tons of plutonium stockpiled at several locations in Japan and another 35 tons stored in France and the U.K. The material is enough to create 5,000 nuclear bombs. The country also has 1.2 tons of enriched uranium.

Technical ability doesn’t equate to a bomb, but experts suggest getting from raw plutonium to a nuclear weapon could take as little as six months after the political decision to go forward.

Some Chinese experts believe that not only does Japan have the weapons-grade plutonium and the technological capability to produce nuclear weapons, but Tokyo might already have two nuclear bombs in its basement.

And now, as Japan grows more assertive in its defense against an increasingly powerful, belligerent, and expansionist China, Beijing is ramping up its claims of Japanese nukes.

The 30-page Chinese report titled “Nuclear Ambitions of Japan’s Right-Wing Forces: A Serious Threat to World Peace” was produced jointly by China’s top two think tanks.

They are the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) and the Nuclear Strategic Planning Research Institute; a think tank affiliated with the China National Nuclear Corporation.

In my view, Japan should build a nuclear deterrent, freeing the United States from risking American cities as part of its nuclear umbrella for Tokyo. Same for South Korea. 

And, as I have written before, even more so for Europe, which should use an expanded Anglo-French nuclear force to provide its own nuclear umbrella over Europe.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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