August 8, 2025

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

In Japan, despite the existence of a deep-rooted movement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons, a serious situation in which Japan’s nuclear armament is openly being advocated has emerged.

The Mainichi Shimbun conducted a questionnaire survey to 125 winners of the July 20 House of Councillors election. In the survey, eight of the 125 newly-elected Upper House members said that Japan should possess nuclear weapons (Mainichi Shinbun on August 1). Of the eight, six belong to the far-right racist “Sanseito” party, and one is a Liberal Democratic Pary member and the other is a member of the rightist Conservative Party of Japan.

Saya, a newcomer from the Sanseito party, who won in the Tokyo constituency in the July election, on an Internet program during the election campaign remarked that “nuclear armament is the cheapest option.”

This remark is totally unacceptable as it tramples on the wishes of A-bomb survivors (Hibakusha) who experienced the catastrophe of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and who have been emphasizing that nuclear arms can never coexist with human beings. Saya is unqualified as a politician of Japan, the only country to have suffered from the atomic bombings in war.

With her remark that possessing nuclear arms is less costly, she exposed her ignorance. It has been pointed out that the research, development, manufacture, and maintenance of nuclear weapons alone cost trillions of yen. In addition, ballistic missiles, bombers, and submarines equipped with nuclear arms and nuclear arsenals would require an enormous amount of money.

Hiroshima City Mayor Matsui Kazumi at a press conference on August 1 criticized the Sanseito lawmaker’s remark, saying, “(Nuclear armament) is not cheap. Such an uninformed remark misses the whole point.”

If Japan arms itself with nuclear weapons, it will not help protect the nation but will instead trigger a nuclear arms race with its neighboring countries, such as China and North Korea, and will only intensify military tensions in East Asia.