DPJ to admit existence of secret nuke pact

The Foreign Ministry has decided to admit the existence of a secret Japan-U.S. pact under which Tokyo allows stopovers of U.S. military vessels or aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, ministry sources said Saturday.

During its in-house probe, the ministry found documents suggesting the existence of the secret nuclear agreement, according to the sources.

Previous governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party consistently denied the existence of the secret nuclear pact, but the new Democratic Party of Japan-led administration is to officially change that stance.

"The probe is now in the final stage, and we will announce the outcome in January," Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Saturday, although he declined to reveal details.

A third-party committee consisting of experts will be set up this week and will analyze the findings, according to the ministry.

According to the 1960 bilateral security treaty, Washington is required to consult with Tokyo before bringing nuclear weapons into Japan. However, the ministry has determined the documents indicate that stopovers of U.S. military vessels or aircraft with nuclear weapons are not subject to prior consultation, the sources said.

The documents have already been disclosed in the United States.

The in-house probe has been conducted under the instruction of Okada, who, after assuming his post in September, ordered the ministry to look into purported bilateral secret pacts — two related to the revision of the security treaty and two related to the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty from U.S. control.

An investigation task force which consisted of around 15 ministry officials has looked into some 3,200 in-house documents and 3,700 documents from the Japanese Embassy in Washington since Sept. 25.

LDP governments had always denied the existence of the secret nuclear pact, arguing that as they had never faced demands for prior consultations, they had to conclude that nuclear weapons had not been brought into Japan.

While consistently denying the clandestine deal with Washington, Tokyo repeatedly stated it was sticking to its three nonnuclear principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory.