Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 04/2012

Nuclear Policy Gridlock in Japan

Jacques E.C. Hymans

November 2011

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

Abstract

Prior to the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, international observers frequently posed the question of whether Japan might convert its large stockpile of plutonium into nuclear weapons. Since March 11, their main question has shifted to whether Japan will decide to exit from the nuclear energy field altogether.