The Yomiuri Shimbun
A former Foreign Ministry administrative vice minister told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday that Japan and the United States had a secret deal to tacitly allow U.S. forces to bring nuclear weapons into the nation.
Ryohei Murata, who served in the position from July 1987 to August 1989, said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun he believes such a deal existed.
"There were documents of this nature," Murata, 79, said referring to speculation that Japanese and U.S. governments have had a secret accord whereby Japan would tacitly approve port calls and passage through Japanese territorial waters by U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons.
The accord is said to have been reached in 1960, when the two countries renewed the bilateral security treaty.
Although the Japanese government has continued to officially deny the existence of such an accord, the latest revelation marks the first time a former administrative vice foreign minister has gone on record as saying such a deal has existed.
During the negotiations over the bilateral treaty, Japan and the United States agreed to discuss in advance if U.S. forces would be bringing nuclear weapons into Japanese territory as a matter of "important changes in equipment."
But the two governments are believed to have agreed to a secret accord so that U.S. warships' port calls and passage through Japanese territorial waters would be exempt from prior consultation in the event of a military emergency in the Far East.
The existence of the secret accord was revealed by a U.S. government official document, known as NSSM5, which was obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun in 1997, and by the testimony of sources on the U.S. side.
Speaking with the Yomiuri, Murata said, "My predecessor told me to convey the contents [of the secret accord] to a minister in my capacity as the administrative vice minister."
Murata said he discussed the contents with the foreign minister at the time.
Murata also said the territorial waters of five major straits had been limited to three nautical miles from land to prevent passage of U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons there from becoming a political flashpoint.
Although the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea allows a nation to set a range for its territorial waters of 12 nautical miles, the figure in the Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi straits and, Tsushima Straits' Higashi-suido and Nishi-suido channels is set at three nautical miles.
Murata said: "This is how I understand this point. And even though it wasn't me who decided this, I think it's clear it was just a wily stopgap measure."
Because part of the waters off the five straits are international waters, warships from China and some other countries frequently pass through them.
However, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone denied the existence of such a deal at the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on June 10.
"Prime ministers and foreign ministers in the past clearly denied the existence of such a secret accord," he said.
Foreign Vice Minister Mitoji Yabunaka, meanwhile, said at a press conference on June 1, "There's no secret accord--that's all I know about the issue."
(Jun. 30, 2009)
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