Former envoy says Japan narrowed territorial waters for U.S. nuke ships

TOKYO, Oct. 17 Kyodo -
Japan decided in the 1970s to set narrow territorial sea limits on its five key
straits to enable the passage of U.S. warships carrying nuclear weapons, a
former Japanese envoy to U.N. talks on international sea laws said in a recent
interview with Kyodo News.
Some U.S. submarines that were passing through Japanese territorial waters or
making calls at Japanese ports during the Cold War era were carrying nuclear
weapons, and the Japanese government made the decision from a political
viewpoint, said Shigeru Oda, who represented Japan in the 1970s talks of the
United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.
Through the 1973-1982 talks, participating countries agreed that a country can
set its territorial waters at a maximum of 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers).
Under the Territorial Waters Act that took effect in 1977, Japan expanded its
territorial sea limits to 12 nautical miles from the previously set 3 nautical
miles (5.6 km). But the limits for the Soya, Tsugaru, Osumi, Tsushima and Korea
straits have remained unchanged at 3 nautical miles to date -- a very rare
situation in the world.
Japan's Foreign Ministry demanded that Oda make no disclosure about how and why
the decision was made in his book which he was writing after leaving the envoy
position to become a judge at the International Court of Justice in 1976, he
also said, adding he gave in to the demand eventually. Oda served as a judge at
the ICJ till 2003.
''The Tsugaru Strait would have become Japan's territorial waters (if the limit
was expanded to 12 nautical miles),'' Oda, 84, said during the interview.
''In order to say 'no bringing in nuclear weapons' and 'submarines must surface
when passing through Japan's territorial waters,' you could not make the limit
12 nautical miles,'' he said, referring to Japan's three non-nuclear principles
which prohibit the nation from possessing, producing or introducing any nuclear
arms onto its territory.
Japan needed to keep the limits along the five straits at 3 nautical miles to
turn a blind eye to U.S. underwater craft possibly carrying nuclear weapons, he
said.
Official U.S. documents and testimony from people involved with the issue have
already confirmed that Japan voluntarily chose to set narrow territorial limits
for the five straits and there was also pressure from the United States on the
matter.
The issue is part of a total of four purported Japan-U.S. secret pacts which
Japan's new government led by the Democratic Party of Japan has been looking
into.
The pacts concern the government led by the Liberal Democratic Party, which the
DPJ ousted from power last month. Two of the pacts are related to the revision
of the Japan-U.S. security treaty in 1960 and another two are related to the
1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty from U.S. control.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada formed a team last month to investigate the pacts.
==Kyodo