Table Of ContentJapan’s Nuclear Identity
and Its Implications
for Nuclear Abolition
Daisuke Akimoto
Japan’s Nuclear Identity and Its Implications
for Nuclear Abolition
Daisuke Akimoto
Japan’s Nuclear
Identity and Its
Implications for
Nuclear Abolition
Daisuke Akimoto
The House of Representatives, Japan
Tokyo, Japan
ISBN 978-981-15-3543-7 ISBN 978-981-15-3544-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3544-4
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A
cknowledgements
In retrospect, peace education for nuclear abolition at Soka University is
the starting point of my peace research on nuclear disarmament and non-
proliferation. First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation
to Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944) as the First President of Soka
Gakkai who theorized Soka education, Josei Toda (1900–1958) as the
Second President of Soka Gakkai who issued the ‘Declaration Calling for
the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons’ on 8 September 1957, and Daisaku
Ikeda as the President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and the
Founder of Soka University who has tirelessly made endeavor for nuclear
abolition and world peace. President Ikeda has made specific suggestions
on nuclear disarmament to the United Nations as an annual SGI peace
proposal since 1983. President Ikeda had dialogues with Arnold
J. Toynbee, Linus Pauling, Joseph Rotblat, Johan Galtung, David Krieger,
Stuart Rees, and Kevin Clements on war and peace including nuclear abo-
lition, and the dialogues were published as books. President Ikeda’s peace
proposals, dialogues, and other publications have consistently inspired and
encouraged me to continue writing and completing this book.
Second, I would like to show my gratitude to Professors of Soka
University, Hideki Tamai (Professor and Director of the Soka University
Peace Research Institute), Minoru Koide (Professor of the Graduate
School of International Peace Studies), Ichiro Maekawa (Professor of the
Faculty of International Liberal Arts), Masashi Nakayama (Professor of
International Law at the Faculty of Law), Donna Macinnis (Professor of
the Faculty of Letters), and Urbain Oliver (Director of the Min-On Music
Research Institute, and Visiting Research Professor at Queen’s University
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Belfast) who taught me about war and peace issues and the importance of
abolition of nuclear weapons in their courses. As a graduation trip of Soka
University, I visited Hiroshima on 5 and 6 August 2003. I learned the
horrible consequence of the use of nuclear weapons in the Hiroshima
Peace Memorial Museum and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony.
Third, I am grateful to Sung Chull Kim (Professor of the Institute for
Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University) and Raymond
Scupin (Professor of the Center for International and Global Studies at
Lindenwood University) for their permissions to utilize the original
research materials published in their journals: Asian Journal of
Peacebuilding and Journal of International and Global Studies. I am grate-
ful to anonymous reviewers and editors of the journals, as well as Jacob
Dreyer (Editor of economics, business, and political science at Palgrave
Macmillan) and Anushangi Weerakoon (Assistant Editor at Springer
Nature). I am also thankful to Hibiki Yamaguchi (Visiting Researcher of
Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University:
RECNA), Paul Duffill (Lecturer of Rikkyo University), Dirk Moses
(Professor of Modern History at the University of Sydney), and Robert
Dujarric (Director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies: ICAS
at Temple University, Japan Campus) for their warm and constructive
comments on some parts of the manuscript of this book.
Fourth, I am appreciative of peace scholars and peace activists who have
committed to nuclear abolition and have stimulated my research motiva-
tion. My research has been inspired by special lecturers, workshops, and
peace movement by Stuart Rees (Emeritus Professor at the Centre for
Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney), Kevin Clements
(Professor and Founding Director of the National Centre for Peace and
Conflict Studies at the University of Otago), Hiromichi Umebayashi
(Professor and Inaugural Director of RECNA), Mitsuru Kurosawa
(Professor of Osaka Jogakuin University), Ichiro Yuasa (President of Peace
Depot), Osamu Fujiwara (Professor of the Department of Modern Law
at Tokyo Keizai University), David Krieger (President of the Nuclear Age
Peace Foundation), Rebecca Johnson (Executive Director of the Acronym
Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy), Kiyohiko Toyama (State Minister
of Finance and former Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan), Anne
Mette Fisker-Nielsen (Associate Professor of the Faculty of Letters at Soka
University), Kimiaki Kawai (Director of Peace and Human Rights at the
SGI), and Yohei Mizuta (an SGI member and peace activist in Nagasaki).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
Fifth, I would like to show my profound appreciation to my family
members and friends, especially Yuiko, my beloved wife, who has patiently
supported my research life with her cooperation and dedication. As well,
Izumi Nakamoto has encouraged me to continue my research on nuclear
abolition like a mother. David Walton at Western Sydney University has
encouraged me to keep on publishing and kindly advised me to write
about Japan-Australia collaboration for nuclear disarmament. Moreover, I
wish to extend my gratitude to the late Professor Mariko J. Honma who
gave me an opportunity to teach a course ‘Peace Studies and Japanese
Political Economy’ in the Japan-Asia Studies (JAS) Program in the Faculty
of Economics at Soka University where I worked as Assistant Professor.
Teaching global peace education for the elimination of war and nuclear
weapons at my alma mater was truly valuable experience. Their mental
supports and encouragements have been indispensable for my motivation
to continue peace research on nuclear elimination.
Finally, I would like to express the deepest acknowledgement to Kazue
Takuwa a hibakusha who survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, but
had to say good-bye to her little sister for good on 30 August 1945. When
I met Mrs. Takuwa on 6 August 2003 in Hiroshima, I blatantly asked her
if she had held a grudge against the American people. I simply assumed
that she must have blamed her sufferings due to radiation sickness on the
United States. To my surprise, Mrs. Takuwa replied to me that she did not
hold a grudge against the Americans or the United States, but that she
abhorred war and nuclear weapons. Mrs. Takuwa passed away on 7
December 2012, and the number of hibakushas has been decreasing year
by year, and I have felt that I should like to make a contribution to nuclear
abolition in an academic manner. As a graduate of Soka University, I sin-
cerely hope that this humble work can become one of the contributions to
peace research and Japanese nuclear disarmament diplomacy toward the
world without nuclear weapons. I wish to dedicate this book to Mrs.
Takuwa and all the other hibakushas in the world.
c
ontents
1 Introduction: The Paradox of Japan’s Nuclear Identity 1
2 Japan as a ‘Nuclear-Bombed State’: The Genocidal Nature
of Nuclear Violence 11
3 Japan as a ‘Nuclear Disarmament State’: Its Global
Initiative for Nuclear Abolition 43
4 Japan as a ‘Nuclear-Threatened State’: Facing the Nuclear
Threat of North Korea 65
5 Japan as a ‘Nuclear Umbrella State’: Embedded in the US
Nuclear Strategy 93
6 Japan and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons (TPNW) 121
7 The Future of Japan’s Nuclear Disarmament Diplomacy 143
Bibliography 157
Index 193
ix
A
bbreviAtions
ABM Anti-Ballistic Missile
ANZUS Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty
BMD Ballistic Missile Defense
CTBT Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
CVID Complete, Verifiable, Irreversible Dismantlement
DPJ Democratic Party of Japan
DPRK Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
ECRR European Committee on Radiation Risk
EU European Union
FMCT Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
IALANA International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
ICC International Criminal Court
ICJ International Court of Justice
ICNND International Commission on Nuclear Non- proliferation and
Disarmament
ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection
IISS International Institute for Strategic Studies
INESAP International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against
Proliferation
INF Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces
IPPNW International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War
IRBM Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile
JAEC Japan Atomic Energy Commission
JALANA Japan Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
xi
xii ABBREVIATIONS
JCP Japanese Communist Party
JDA Japan Defense Agency
JIIA Japan Institute for International Affairs
JKNWFZ Japanese-Korean Nuclear Weapons Free Zone
JSP Japan Socialist Party
KEDO Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization
LDP Liberal Democratic Party
LNWFZ-NEA Limited Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Northeast Asia
MAD Mutual Assured Destruction
MIRV Multiple Independently-Targetable Reentry Vehicle
MOFA Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
MRBM Medium Range Ballistic Missile
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NC3 Nuclear Command, Control, and Communication
NFU No First Use
NGO Non-Governmental Organizations
NPDI Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative
NPR Nuclear Posture Review
NPT Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
NSA Negative Security Assurance
NSS National Security Strategy
NWC Nuclear Weapons Convention
NWFZ-NEA Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in Northeast Asia
OEWG Open-Ended Working Group
PTBT Partial Test Ban Treaty/Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Test
in the Atmosphere, in outer Space, and under Water
QDR Quadrennial Defense Review
SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
SDF Self-Defense Forces
SDI Strategic Defense Initiative
SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
SLBM Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile
SLCM Sea-Launched (Submarine-Launched) Cruise Missile
SORT Strategic Offensive Reduction Treaty
SRBM Short Range Ballistic Missile
START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
TEL Transporter Erector Launcher
TEPCO Tokyo Electric Power Company
TLAM-N Tomahawk Land Attack Missile-Nuclear
TPNW Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
UNGA United Nations General Assembly
UNSC United Nations Security Council
