A Korea-Japan Nuclear Weapon Free Zone has implications for the US assurance of extended nuclear deterrence to Japan and Korea. At the very least a nuclear weapon free zone would require the United States to commit to not firing nuclear weapons out of the NWFZ. A nuclear weapon free zone in North-East Asia could shift the focus of US deterrence away from nuclear weapons and towards the reliance on the conventional forces already deployed in the region.
Supporting Materials: Japan
Conventional Deterrence and Japan’s Security
Ogawa, S., East Asia Nuclear Security Workshop, Tokyo, Japan (November 2011)
Extended Deterrence in the Japan-U.S. Alliance
Jimbo, K., East Asia Nuclear Security Workshop, Tokyo, Japan (November 2011)
Japan Pushes for Progress in U.S. Nuclear Review
Baruah, J., Nuclear Abolition News, nuclearabolition.net
Okada’s letter to Clinton, (24 December 2009) [English] [Japanese]
Japan Ready for “No Nukes”
Shingo Fukuyama and Hiromichi Umebayashi, Japan Times, August 25, 2009
Japan, TLAM/N, and Extended Deterrence
Hans M. Kristensen, FAS Strategic Security Blog, 2 July 2009
Thinking About the Unthinkable: Tokyo’s Nuclear Option
Toshi Yoshihara and James R. Holmes, Naval War College Review, Summer 2009, Vol. 62, No. 3
The U.S.-Japan Alliance & the Future of Extended Deterrence
James L. Schoff, Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, March 2009.
Japanese perceptions of Obama’s nuclear ‘twin commitments’
Ken Jimbo, Japan Times, 5 March 2009
Japan’s Nuclear Future: Policy Debate, Prospects, and U.S. Interests
Emma Chanlett-Avery and Mary Beth Nikitin, Congressional Research Service, May 9, 2008
Joint Statement of the Security Consultative Committee – Alliance Transformation: Advancing United States-Japan Security and Defense Cooperation
by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso, and Minister of Defense Fumio Kyuma, May 1, 2007.
Thinking the Unthinkable: Japanese nuclear power and proliferation in East Asia
Frank Barnaby and Shaun Burnie, Oxford Research Group, August 2005
National Defense Program Guideline, FY 2005-, Approved by the Security Council and the Cabinet on December 10, 2004.
[Excerpt: To protect its territory and people against the threat of nuclear weapons, Japan will continue to rely on the U.S. nuclear deterrent.]
Nuclear Option, Arms Control, and Extended Deterrence: In Search of a New Framework for Japan’s Nuclear Policy
Katsuhisa Furukawa in Benjamin L. Self and Jeffrey W. Thompson (eds.), Japan’s Nuclear Option: Security, Politics, and Policy in the 21st Century, (Washington, DC: Henry L. Stimson Center, December 2003).
Link Japanese and Koreans in a Nuclear weapon-free zone
Ogawa Shin’ichi, New York Times, August 29, 1997
Problems of U.S. Extended Nuclear Deterrence for Japan, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Centre for International Affairs and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University, USJP Occasional Paper 88-13, 1988. (Part 1 [1.2 Mb], Part 2 [928 Kb], Part 3 [840 Kb], Part 4[1.3 Mb] – all PDFs are searchable.)
National Defense Program Outline in and after FY 1996, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, December, 1995
[Excerpt: Against the threat of nuclear weapons, rely on the U.S. nuclear deterrent, while working actively on international efforts for realistic and steady nuclear disarmament aiming at a world free from the nuclear weapons.]
National Defense Program Outline, National Defense Council, October 29, 1976
[Excerpt: Japan’s basic defense policy is to possess an adequate defense capability of its own while establishing a posture for the most effective operation of that capability to prevent aggression…Against nuclear threat Japan will rely on the nuclear deterrent capability of the United States.]