Saito blasts senior official’s comment on nuclear weapons

December 20 , 2025

Saito met with reporters on Dec. 19 over a government officials comment on nuclear weapons Saito met with reporters on Dec. 19 over a government officials comment on nuclear weapons

On December 19, Komeito Chief Representative Tetsuo Saito spoke to reporters on a comment reportedly made by a senior official in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons. Although attributed as a private observation, Saito blasted the official, saying such comments flew in the face of Japan’s postwar stand against nuclear weapons.

Saito said the three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, producing or permitting them on Japanese soil, as well as Japan being a signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, were unassailable pillars of public policy. Any comment contradicting these two most basic security foundations, he said, threatens to upend every diplomatic and national security effort Japan has made for decades. It could very well invite international condemnation and dramatically escalate tensions in the region, he noted. Equally disturbing was the fact that the comment was made while the Takaichi administration stand on nuclear weapons were ambiguous and evasive, he concluded.