The governor of Hiroshima Prefecture, Hidehiko Yuzaki, and the mayor of Nagasaki City, Shiro Suzuki, expressed their opposition to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's attempt to revise the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, a day after the governors of Okinawa and Nagasaki Prefectures voiced similar concerns. At a press conference on Tuesday, Yuzaki stated that Hiroshima was the first city in human history to be struck by an atomic bomb, and that the long-standing Three Non-Nuclear Principles must be respected. Furthermore, the official asserted that relying on nuclear weapons for security is dangerous and that the government must strive to find an alternative to nuclear deterrence. Suzuki also told the press on Tuesday that Takaichi's attempt to revise the Three Non-Nuclear Principles would intensify Japan's dependence on nuclear deterrence. These principles have long been considered a national policy, and it is imperative to strongly demand that the government adhere to them. The Three Non-Nuclear Principles—non-possession, non-production, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory—were first declared in the Japanese parliament, the National Diet, by then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 and are considered a national creed. The National Security Strategy, one of the three security documents approved by the Cabinet in 2022, states: "The basic policy of adherence to the Three Non-Nuclear Principles will remain unchanged in the future." However, Japanese media recently cited government sources indicating that as the government prepares to review the country's key national security documents by the end of 2026, Takaichi was considering revising the third of the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, which prohibits the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory, sparking strong doubts and concerns nationwide.
