Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida admitted Wednesday that it is difficult to detect signs of an attack against Japan, in regard of the country’s possible use of counterattack capability.

“In reality, it’s difficult to detect an opponent’s first-strike missile launch in advance and to stop the attack,” Kishida told a meeting of the Budget Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament.

The Japanese government takes the position that the counterattack capability could be used even before a missile is launched by an enemy, as long as the start of an attack is recognized.

Kishida’s latest remark indicated that it would be rare for Japan to exercise the counterattack capability preemptively.

Asked whether the counterattack capability covers an attack by Japanese Self-Defense Force fighter jets, Kishida merely said, “We must consider whether it meets the (three new) conditions (for the use of force).”

The prime minister emphasized that the government will maintain the country’s three nonnuclear principles.

On possible nuclear sharing with the United States, Kishida said, “We won’t consider (the possibility).”

Elsewhere in the meeting, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that Japan and the United States have yet to compile a joint operation plan to prepare for possible military aggression by China against Taiwan.

JIJI Press