Japan's defence chief has said Tokyo needs a debate on nuclear weapons, as some European countries are seeking greater nuclear deterrence.
Japan "cannot avoid touching" on the issue, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said during an online programme, according to Tokyo-based Kyodo News on Sunday.
Observing that Japan's security environment has grown "harsher," he argued that Tokyo needs to change a situation in which some topics are considered unacceptable to debate.
Koizumi pointed to the strategic efforts of France and Finland to bolster their nuclear deterrence capabilities.
Finland's parliament in June approved a bill that would allow nuclear weapons to be brought into the country, while French President Emmanuel Macron said in March that his country would increase the number of nuclear warheads.
Debating non-nuclear principles
Japan relies on the US nuclear umbrella but maintains three principles of not possessing, producing or allowing nuclear weapons on its territory.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government invited backlash from opposition parties and some countries in December last year after a source involved in devising the country's security policy said Japan should possess nuclear weapons.
Former Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera also said late last year that Japan needs to debate the future of its non-nuclear principles.
Japan is the only country to have suffered an atomic bombing during wartime.
The United States dropped nuclear weapons on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, in an effort to force Japan’s surrender in World War II.
