TOKYO (Reuters) -- A junior minister in Japan's ruling government stepped down on Wednesday for saying Japan should consider abandoning a decades-old ban on nuclear weapons.
Shingo Nishimura, one of two parliamentary vice ministers appointed to back up the defense minister, tendered his resignation to Defense Minister Tsutomu Kawara.In an interview with a weekly publication, Nishimura said that, in his personal opinion, a nuclear weapons arsenal provides deterrence against a nuclear attack.
"If there were no punishment for rape, then we would all be rapists. But that's not the case as punishment acts as a deterrence," Nishimura was quoted as saying in Japan's Playboy magazine, which has no editorial connection to the U.S. version.
Japan, the only nation ever to suffer from an atomic bomb attack, has stuck for more than 30 years to its "three principles," which ban the possession, production and importation of nuclear weapons.
"I think the Prime Minister hopes that this incident is behind us due to the very speedy handling of the matter," said Obuchi spokesman Akitaka Saiki.
"We do not want the parliamentary debate, to begin next week, to be monopolised by questions and answers on the Nishimura affair."
Political analyst Minoru Morita said the incident was unlikely to spark the sudden downfall of Obuchi despite the fact that the prime minister had taken pains to stress that he was personally in charge of cabinet appointments.
But he added that it could signal the start of a downslide in his popularity, which has risen to respectable levels from abysmal ratings when he took office last year.
"It will become...the beginning of a trip downhill," he said.
Government officials also worried that Nishimura's comments, if not dealt with swiftly, would anger Asian neighbours such as China and South Korea as well as upset the general public.
"Mr Nishimura's remarks caused a huge sensation throughout the nation and also in foreign countries including neighbouring countries such as China and Korea and the government is seriously concerned about the repercussions of his remarks," Saiki said.
Nuclear sentiments aside, critics also attacked the sexist nature of Nishimura's remarks.
Opposition lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto protested Nishimura's analogy to rape, saying: "I and other women parliamentarians will make sure (Obuchi's government) will fall."
Nishimura's comments also come less than a week after Japan's prime minister in a letter to U.S. President Bill Clinton said it was extremely regrettable that the U.S. Senate had failed to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty banning nuclear tests.
Analysts said Nishimura's views reflected those of the far right of Japan's political spectrum and were not widely shared by the public, but noted that the comments also come amidst a drift toward more nationalist sentiment following North Korea's firing of its Teapodong missile over Japanese airspace in August 1998.
"He was able to make all those comments because of the atmosphere around him," Morita said.
Nishimura, a member of the Liberal Party, one of two junior partners in the ruling coalition, is known for his hawkish views.
In May 1997, Nishimura and three others outraged activists in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong when they went ashore on a disputed island in the East China Sea and planted a Japanese flag.
Japan, China and Taiwan all claim the islands, known as the Senkakus by the Japanese and the Daioyus by the Chinese.
Nishimura in the interview reiterated his view that the isla nds belong to Japan. He was also quoted as saying it was his "lifework" to establish a national military force to replace Japan's current Self Defence Forces.