Japan questions covert military treaties with US

Japan probes secret security deals with US

(Press TV) -- Japan's new government says it is probing an alleged secret deal under which Tokyo would illegally allow the US to bring in nuclear arsenals into Japan without prior consultation.

The US military vessels reportedly conducted countless nuclear stopovers in Japan without discussing the situation with Tokyo over the past years.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo says the covert pacts include a revised 1960 treaty under which Tokyo would allow the US to bring in nuclear weapons into the country.

The covert pact also allowed nuclear-armed US ships and planes to make port calls or fly over in Japan.

This is while the original text of treaty stipulates that Washington must consult with Tokyo before bringing nuclear weapons into the country.

The secret deal would contradict Japan's three principles of not possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has criticized the previous governments for their denial of the deals made by premiers and foreign ministers in the past.

The new administration has said it will look into a purported secret Tokyo-Washington pact allowing US military vessels carrying nuclear weapons to stop over in Japan.

"We want to reveal the facts to the public when an investigation has confirmed them," the 62-year-old premier told reporters at a press conference in Tokyo.

The authorities in Tokyo have reportedly started looking into thousands of files relating to the deal.

The developments come after Hatoyama's center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) defeated former prime minister Taro Aso's Liberal Democratic Party in recent crucial parliamentary elections.

The new government has vowed to adopt an independent foreign policy, signaling a change in the traditional approach of taking sides with the United States followed by the country after World War II.

The party has also vowed to review the status of forces agreement (SOFA) governing the presence of US troops in the country.

Hatoyama has also insisted that his DJP party will question the role of thousands of US troops deployed throughout Japan under a post World War II security pact.

Also, newly elected Japanese legislators from DPJ have promised to press for the removal of US military units from the southern island of Okinawa.

The premier is said to be a strong critic of what he calls Tokyo's 'subservient position to Washington'.

Moreover, Hatoyama had earlier vowed to pursue new policies that would take Tokyo away from the 'excesses of US-style capitalism'.

“As a result of the failure of the Iraq war and the financial crisis, the era of US-led globalism is coming to an end," Hatoyama wrote in an opinion piece for The New York Times last month.

He had regularly criticized the pro-US ruling party for joining in refueling operations in the Indian Ocean in support of the US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The new premier has vowed to listen to the people after what he called a historic change of government. The landmark change in Japan's politics ends almost half a century of conservative rule in the country.