U.S.-Japanese Nuclear Relations: Structural Change and Political Strain

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS concerning the civilian uses of nuclear energy have recently been disrupted by two parallel crises of confidence that emerged during the mid-1970s. First, prompted by a juxtaposition of several events, including, most dramatically, the Indian nuclear explosion of 1974, international anxieties over the potential links between civilian nuclear technology and the spread of nuclear weapons intensified. Subsequent efforts by the governments of major nuclear supplier nations to strengthen the barriers between civilian and military nuclear applications collided with plans and expectations for civilian nuclear energy development in many countries. The outcome was a widespread and sustained crisis of confidence in the framework of international political and commercial agreements that had previously been constructed to facilitate international nuclear trade while seeking to control the associated risks of nuclear weapons proliferation. Over a roughly coincident period, unresolved economic, environmental, and socio-political difficulties were contributing to a major transformation in the global prospects for nuclear energy. In many countries, including some of the world's major industrialized nations, the confidence of important sections of opinion in nuclear power technology and in those responsible for its implementation began to erode. Although nuclear