According to Ishiba, an Asian version of NATO, “must ensure deterrence against the nuclear alliance of China, Russia, and North Korea. The Asian version of NATO must also specifically consider America’s sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region.”

The move to giving Japan access to nuclear weapons is opposed by a large majority of the population, with a reported 75 percent wanting Japan to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

In order to bring about a Pacific Treaty Organization similar to NATO, Ishiba hopes to introduce major changes allowing further militarization of Japan. A first step would be to introduce a military charter, a “Basic Law on National Security” that Ishiba describes as “one of the pillars of my foreign and national security policy.”

Such a law would legalize military use of public and private facilities and resources under a ‘state of emergency’, expand military capacities further than what the current legislation permits. ‘National emergency’ legislation was created when Ishiba was the Defence Agency Minister in 2003 and, for the first time, enabled the government to give the US military access to Japanese non-military facilities in a ‘state of emergency,’ under which people’s constitutional rights, including the freedom of assembly, privacy, and even private property rights to lands and ports, are suspended. It seems reasonable to assume that the Basic Law on National Security would further restrict civil liberties and support authoritarian leaderships.