The revised 1960 Japan-U.S. Security Treaty stipulates that prior bilateral consultations are required for the United States to bring nuclear weapons and mid- and long-range missiles into Japan.
However, the two countries also made a secret agreement that such consultations are unnecessary when U.S. warships and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons call at Japanese ports or pass through Japanese territorial waters or airspace.
The existence of the secret agreement has already been verified through U.S. State Department documents declassified in 2000 and statements by Americans involved in the deal.
However, the Japanese government has continued to issue denials. The latest one came Monday.
“Such a secret agreement does not exist,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a news conference. “If prior consultations are not held, then nuclear weapons are not brought into Japanese territories. We have no doubts at all about that.”
Murata served as an administrative vice foreign minister for about two years from July 1987.
When he took over the post, he received the document on the secret agreement from his predecessor. He said the contents were written in Japanese on a single piece of clerical stationery used in the Foreign Ministry in those days.
Murata said he explained the contents to then Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari and his successor, Sosuke Uno.