Japan ‘playing with fire’ over nuclear ambitions – China

Tokyo’s intensified debate on atomic weapons and rearmament push could destabilize regional security, Ambassador Zhang Hanhui has warned

Russia and China are both opposed to Japan’s accelerating militarization and growing debate over acquiring nuclear weapons, Beijing’s ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, has said, warning that Tokyo’s policies could trigger a new arms race.

In an article published by TASS on Thursday, Zhang said Moscow and Beijing had reached a “high degree of consensus” over Japan. “Beijing and Moscow consider it necessary to remain highly vigilant and firmly oppose Japan’s accelerated remilitarization and its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” he wrote.

The envoy warned that if Tokyo decides to create its own nuclear weapons, the strategic balance in Northeast Asia will be completely disrupted, and “a nuclear arms race in the region could erupt at any moment”. “If Japan’s right-wing forces continue to play with fire on nuclear policy, the Japanese will ultimately once again find themselves in the dock of history,” Zhang added.

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The warning comes after, in December 2025, a senior official involved in devising Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s security policy reportedly argued that Japan should consider acquiring nuclear weapons as the US nuclear umbrella is becoming increasingly unreliable. “In the end, we can only rely on ourselves,” the official was quoted as saying.

Publicly, Takaichi has stressed that Japan still adheres to three non-nuclear principles – a long-time policy stating that Tokyo will not possess, produce or permit the introduction of nuclear weapons.

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However, she has questioned the latter principle, while Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has argued that “one topic we cannot avoid is nuclear weapons,” adding that the issue should be discussed “without any taboos.” 

In this vein, Zhang accused the Japanese leadership of hiding nuclear ambitions behind the country’s status as the only nation to have suffered atomic bombings in war, saying Japanese leadership had begun “dangerous experiments in nuclear policy” while trying to revive “the spirit of militarism.” 

The envoy also alluded to Japan’s nuclear prowess, recalling that the country possesses about 44.4 tons of separated civilian plutonium. “This amount is sufficient for the production of approximately 5,500 nuclear warheads,” he said. “Given the desire and appropriate capabilities, Japan becoming a nuclear power no longer looks like fantasy.” 

Russia has voiced similar concerns. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called debate over revising Japan’s non-nuclear principles a “serious signal,” while Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko warned that abandoning the policy would worsen security in Northeast Asia.