In the face of North Korea's return to nuclear development and China's ever-growing military presence, Yasunari Fujimoto believes the defense of the Japanese homeland must be secured at almost any cost.
Even so, hosting a nuclear aircraft carrier in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is too high a price, says the deputy secretary general of Tokyo-based Forum for Peace, Human Rights and Environment, describing the scheduled arrival of the USS George Washington on Thursday as more of a risk than a security enhancement.
"Citizens of Yokosuka remain strongly concerned about the safety of the warship, and no satisfactory explanation has been given to us," Fujimoto said in an interview with The Japan Times last week. "The arrival of the carrier is unacceptable.