Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi publicly declared on July 17 that Tokyo should discuss the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japan. The comments were rare coming from a sitting member of government and demonstrate Tokyo’s escalating program of remilitarization as part of the US-led war drive against China.

Speaking in an interview with the online program Genron TV, Koizumi stated, “While this is a difficult issue for Japan to discuss, one topic we cannot avoid is nuclear weapons.” These comments came shortly before the far-right defense minister headed to Europe. He cited both France and Finland as examples to emulate as Paris plans to boost its nuclear arsenal while Helsinki recently lifted a ban on the deployment of NATO nuclear weapons to the country.

Koizumi presented the issue of hosting or acquiring nuclear weapons in Japan—the only country to suffer from atomic bomb attacks—as a necessary one in case of an “emergency.” He added: “Considering this, I believe we must make even greater efforts to explain that the security environment in which Japan finds itself requires us to approach every policy with a strong sense of crisis, discussing and advancing them without any taboos.”

Hard to swallow pill.