Posted for David Cyranoski

The Japanese press is reporting that senior ruling party parliament member and former finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa called for Japan to develop a nuclear weapons program yesterday [Sunday].

Reports of nuclear bomb ambitions aren’t new in Japan, but they are always controversial.

Japan, the only country to suffer a nuclear strike, has long held a no-nuke position, and most of its populace take great pride in it. Most Japanese get nervous about nuclear energy, and power companies have been defeated often by local initiatives rejecting new nuclear plants. Observers here refer to it as a “nuclear allergy” among the populace (Referendum stalls Japanese nuclear power strategy – June 2001).

There have always been militarists in Japan hoping to turn that position around. North Korea’s April 5 launch of what they say was a communications satellite launch but what most other countries have assumed to be military posturing, has given those voices more credence. But will Nakagawa’s voice be heard?

Probably not. The last time his voice was heard, it was slurred at a G-7 press conference, and the appearance that (and allegations that) he was drunk embarrassed Japan and ended with his resignation.

But there are surely more that share his opinion. And Japan has plenty of plutonium, which it says it plans to use in nuclear power plants (Asia’s nuclear family – May 2003). But the plants to use the fuel haven’t been approved, and the stockpile sits there.