A former vice foreign minister recently said he has seen documents from 1960 that confirm a secret Japan-U.S. pact under which Tokyo allows U.S. military ships and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons to transit Japan.
"I saw them. I have memories that we looked into them after something happened," the former top ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The official, who served in key ministry posts in the 1980s and 1990s, said he can't remember the circumstances under which he read the Jan. 6, 1960, minutes.