01.12.2021, Moscow.
Japan could overtake Iran in developing its own nuclear bomb, and Japan may already be among the world’s top three countries in terms of the amount of fissile material it has stockpiled, the New Eastern Outlook magazine wrote on November 30.
While Israel is trying to stop Iran’s nuclear program with US help, a key US ally in the Asia-Pacific region may become a new nuclear arsenal in the shadow of this campaign. The article reads that while Iran needs to produce 15 to 20 kilograms of weapons-grade uranium to produce a single nuclear charge, Japan has stockpiled fissile materials to make thousands of nuclear charges.
And while this information cannot be officially confirmed, a number of indirect indications suggest that Japan would like, could, and most likely has taken advantage of its capabilities to obtain and accumulate raw materials for the production of nuclear weapons.
Photos published in 2011 indicate that undeclared fissile materials may have been produced and stored in the building complex of the Fukushima nuclear plant that was hit by the tsunami.
Of particular importance in this regard are the increasingly frequent proposals broadcast by Japanese and US media that US allies in the Asia-Pacific region should be strengthened to contain China, including by allowing them to acquire their own nuclear weapons.
For example, Foreign Affairs suggests including Japanese combat aviation in the SNOWCAT (Support of Nuclear Operations with Conventional Air Tactics) program – maneuvers where they practice nuclear attack scenarios similar to those already taking place in Europe.
And the Financial Times quotes Robert Soofer, a senior Trump administration nuclear policy official, as saying that China is rapidly developing its nuclear capabilities precisely to undermine US regional alliances, so America will now have to choose. Soofer said that either Japan, South Korea and Taiwan can get nuclear weapons, or they will start adjusting to China.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
