Abstract
For many years, Japan’s technological capabilities have provided it with a relatively unique status among industrial nations. This chapter selectively examines the role that technology has played in Japan’s actual and potential security posture. In doing this, it looks at some past and current uses and considerations of technology, including how it relates to nuclear weapons, missile defense, and Japan’s place under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. The chapter concludes by suggesting three important ways that Japan can advance the use of technology to promote nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Jeremy Hall, “Will Japan Go Nuclear?” New Zealand International Review, vol. 22, no. 6, November/December 1997, pp. 12–15.
World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Power in Japan, London, August 2004, accessed at http://www.world-nuclear.ors.
Frank Barnabie and Shaun Burnie, “Thinking the Unthinkable: Japanese Nuclear Power and Proliferation in East Asia,” Japan Focus September 8, 2005, accessed at http://japanfocus.org.
Tsuneo Akaha, “Japan’s Three Nonnuclear Principles: A Coming Demise?” Peace & Change, vol. 11, no. 1, Spring 1985, pp. 75–89.
Hans Kristensen, Japan Under the US Nuclear Umbrella (Berkeley, CA: The Nautilus Institute, July 21, 1999), accessed at http://www.nautilus.org/papers/security/index.html#nanp on May 21, 2001;
Robert Norris, William Arkin, and William Burr, “How Much Did Japan Know?” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January/February 2000, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 11–15.
“Nakasone Ok’d Nukes for Japan,” Asahi Shimbun December 2000. The existence of this nuclear shield permitted Nakasone to write many years later in 1998 that, ”After being appointed director general of the Defense Agency in 1970, I repeatedly and explicitly declared that Japan would not acquire nuclear weapons.“ See Yasuhiro Nakasone, “Japan’s Firm Nonnuclear Resolve,” Japan Echo, October 1998, vol. 25, no. 5.
Morton Halperin, The Nuclear Dimension of the U.S. Japan Alliance (Berkeley, CA: The Nautilus Institute, n.d.), accessed at http://www.nautilus.org/papers/security/index.html #nap on August 15, 2001.
Selig Harrison, “Japan and Nuclear Weapons,” in Japan’s Nuclear Future: The Plutonium Debate and East Asian Security ( Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996 ), p. 8.
Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Report of the Preparatory Committee on its First Session, New York, United Nations, April 8–19, 2002.
Anthony DiFilippo, “Nuclear Weapons Unconstitutional for Japan,” The Korea Times, November 28, 2002.
Jinzaburo Takagi, “Japan’s Plutonium Program: A Critical Review,” in Japan’s Nuclear Future: The Plutonium Debate and East Asian Security, ed. Selig Harrison (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1996 ), pp. 77–78.
Eiichi Katahara, “Japan’s Plutonium Policy: Consequences for Nonproliferation,” The Nonproliferation Review, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 1997, pp. 53–61.
Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle, How Japan Should Tackle the NPT, Tokyo, September 28, 1993.
Lawrence Wittner, The Struggle Against the Bomb: Resisting the Bomb—A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954–1970, vol. 2 ( Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997 ), pp. 442–462.
Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle, How Japan Should Tackle the NPT Tokyo, September 28, 1993.
Anthony DiFilippo, Cracks in the Alliance: Science, Technology, and the Evolution of U.S. Japan Relations (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1997 ).
Wang Baofu, “Japanese Military Expansion Underway,” Beijing Review, May 23, 2002; “High Vigilance Against Japan Called for,” Korean Central News Agency, January 5, 2001; “KCNA on Japan’s ‘Strategic Review’ of East Asia,” Korean Central News Agency, March 8, 2001.
Anthony DiFilippo, The Challenges of the U.S. Japan Military Arrangement: Competing Security Transitions in a Changing International Environment ( Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2002 ).
Michael Swaine with Loren Runyon, “Ballistic Missiles and Missile Defense in Asia,” The National Bureau of Asian Research (Seattle, WA), vol. 13, no. 3, June 2002, p. 59.
Kori Urayama, “Missile Defense: Japan’s Wait-and-See Approach,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists vol. 57, no. 6, November/December 2001, pp. 33–35.
Soeya Yoshihide, “Mutually Assured Discussion,” Look Japan, vol. 47, no. 546, September 2001, p. 23.
For a general discussion of the weakening of the systems of deterrence and abstinence (of nuclear weapons) but that draws a far too sanguine conclusion see William Walker, “Nuclear Order and Disorder,” International Affairs, vol. 76, no. 4, October 2000: 703–724.
Stanley Foundation and the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Ballistic Missile Defense and Northeast Asian Security: Views from Washington, Beijing, and Tokyo, April 2001.
A number of writers have forcefully argued this point. For a recent example of this argument, see Richard Butler, Fatal Choice: Nuclear Weapons and the Illusion of Missile Defense ( Boulder, CO: Westview, 2001 ).
Richard Garwin and Georges Charpak, Megawatts and Megatons: A Turning Point in the Nuclear Age? ( New York: Knopf, 2001 ), pp. 357–359.
Anthony Cataldo, “Critical Technologies at the Core of U.S.-Japan Collaboration on Missile Defense—Pact Sets Sights on ‘Hit to Kill,’ ”Electronic Engineering Times, September 20, 1999.
Michael Swaine, Rachel Swanger, and Takashi Kawahami, Japan and Ballistic Missile Defense ( Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2001 ), p. 67;
Paul Mann, “Economic Woes Shadow Japan’s Missile Defense,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, vol. 156, no. 10, March 11, 2002, pp. 55–57.
Statements and Announcements by Chief Cabinet Secretary, Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Tokyo, December 19, 2003.
Anthony DiFilippo, “Security Trials, Nuclear Tribulations, and Rapprochement in Japan-North Korean Relations,” The Journal of Pacific Asia, vol. 11, 2004, p. 22.
Statements and Announcements by Chief Cabinet Secretary, Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Hiroyuki Hosoda), Tokyo, December 10, 2004.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Joint Statement: U.S. Japan Security Consultative Committee, Washington, DC, February 19, 2005.
Ibid.; Katie Walter, “Big Glass for a Big Laser,” Science 6- Technology Review, Livermore, CA, September 2001, pp. 6–7;
Masa Takubo, “Japanese and German Glass Companies Involved in U.S. Nuclear Weapons Development,” International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation, Information Bulletin, no. 19, March 2002.
Masa Takubo, “Japanese Optical Glass Giant Involved in U.S. Nuclear Weapons Development,” Gensuikin (Japan Congress Against A- and H- Bombs), Tokyo, accessed at http://www.Gensuikin.org/english/main.html on July 18, 2002; “Hoya to Ship Glass to U.S. Nuclear Lab,” The Japan Times Online March 28, 2001; Peace Depot, Evaluating Implementation of the NPT 13+2 Steps: Japan’s Report Card on Nuclear Disarmament 2002, Yokohama, Japan, March 27, 2002.
Fumikazu Asa, “Invisible Testing,” in The Road to the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons ( Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1999 ), pp. 45–49.
Copyright information
© 2006 Anthony DiFilippo
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Difilippo, A. (2006). Technology, Choice, and Nuclear Weapons. In: Japan’s Nuclear Disarmament Policy and the U.S. Security Umbrella. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230600720_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230600720_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-53473-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-60072-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)