Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday called for a debate over nuclear arms, referring to the concept of nuclear sharing, in which a nuclear state allows allies without such weapons to share them and take part in the decision-making process when they are used.

“While Japan has three nonnuclear principles, holding discussions on the reality about how the world’s safety has been protected should not be considered to be a taboo,” he said in a television program.

As the world’s only nation attacked with nuclear weapons, “Japan must have a goal of eliminating nuclear arms, and it’s important for us to move toward the goal,” Abe also said.

The three nonnuclear principles call on Japan not to possess or produce nuclear weapons, and not allow them in Japan’s territory. The city of Hiroshima, western Japan, and the southwestern city of Nagasaki were devastated by the U.S. atomic bombings in August 1945 in the closing days of World War II.

On Japan-Russia joint economic activities at four northwestern Pacific islands at the center of the two countries’ long-standing territorial dispute, Abe said that now is not the time to advance the projects in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Still, he argued that the cooperation framework should be maintained. If Japan declares the termination of the joint activities, it would be difficult to revive the framework even after the situation improves, he said.

The start of talks on the joint activities was agreed on by Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin while Abe was in office as prime minister.

The four islands were seized by the former Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War II. The territorial row has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from concluding a peace treaty to formally end their wartime hostilities.

JIJI Press