Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi doubled down on ambiguity during a speech Sunday marking 81 years since the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, avoiding a clear commitment to preserving the country’s long-held “three nonnuclear principles,” days after a similar address in Hiroshima.
In the prime minister’s annual address before survivors, family members and foreign and Japanese dignitaries, Takaichi reiterated Japan’s stances on the principles of not possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons.
“Our country firmly upholds the three nonnuclear principles, and under the pledge that ‘Nagasaki shall be the last city to suffer a nuclear attack,’ we are promoting realistic and practical initiatives toward the realization of a world without nuclear weapons,” she said.