Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi on Tuesday dismissed former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's suggestion that Japan start discussions on the possibility of a nuclear-sharing arrangement with the United States in the wake of Russia's aggression in Ukraine, a nonnuclear state.
Kishi pushed back against the controversial remark by Abe, his elder brother, in a news conference, insisting the need to retain Japan's nonnuclear principles of not producing, possessing or permitting the introduction of nuclear arms.
"If that framework assumes that U.S. nuclear weapons are deployed in our territory even in peacetime, and they are ready to be carried by our fighter jets in an emergency, that would never be allowed," Kishi said.