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TOKYO: Japan has conducted a secret study showing it will need three to five years if it decides to develop nuclear weapons, a newspaper said Monday.
The report contradicts government statements since North Korea's October nuclear test that Japan can quickly develop nuclear weapons but chooses not to take the long-taboo step.
The conservative Sankei Shimbun said the government commissioned a report by experts completed in September on the possibility of creating indigenous nuclear warheads.
The study found that Japan needed three to five years, investment of 200 to 300 billion yen (1.7 to 2.5 billion dollars) and hundreds of engineers just for the prototype of a small-scale nuclear warhead.
“Even if Japan says hypothetically it can defend itself with nuclear arms, it could not deter the North Korean nuclear threat immediately and independently,” the newspaper wrote, summarizing the report.
Even though Japan has plants for uranium enrichment and the technology for reprocessing, technological constraints would prevent converting the facilities to develop nuclear weapons, it said.
“Japan would have to address technological issues that are not yet familiar to the nation to create small nuclear warheads,” the daily wrote.
Officials denied the reported study.
“The government is absolutely unaware of it,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government spokesman.
Japan, the only nation to have been attacked with nuclear bombs, bans the production, possession or presence of atomic weapons on its soil.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said his government will not change its stance, but two of his top aides have repeatedly called for Japan at least to debate going nuclear.
One of them, Foreign Minister Taro Aso, said last month that Japan could already produce nuclear weapons if it chose to, due to its high level of technology and civilian nuclear industry.
Japan, which is almost entirely dependent on foreign oil and gas, relies on nuclear production for one-third of its energy requirements.
