Japanese companies played a key role in supplying equipment used for Pakistan's nuclear arms program, investigations by Kyodo News in Islamabad and Tokyo have revealed in recent days.
Comments by Pakistan's disgraced nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, and former employees of the companies reveal in detail for the first time how leading Japanese manufacturers knowingly and unknowingly helped Pakistan acquire nuclear capability and were incorporated into its supply framework.
Pakistan began work on its nuclear weapons program after the 1974 nuclear test by India, and Khan was put in charge of Pakistan's uranium enrichment program in 1976. Another organization, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, was given the job of developing a plutonium supply route.