Japan-United States Nuclear Cooperation Agreement And It's Role In The Development Of Japan's Nuclear Power

As early as May,1943 when American “Manhattan Project” had started for one year,Japan began to develop nuclear weapons.After America occupied Japan alone,the occupation authority once prohibited Japan to develop nuclear energy.But due to the outbreak of Cold War,American prohibition of Japanese development of nuclear energy was gradually relaxed.Therefor,in 1955 America and Japan signed US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.The content of the agreement is that US provides help for Japanese development of nuclear energy base on the effective control over the application of Japanese nuclear energy.After rewritten for three times and amended for twice,this agreement is still the most formal legal document for guiding US-Japan cooperation on nuclear energy.Based on the agreement,US ensures Japan under the nuclear non-proliferation system promoted by US so that Japan serves for the American foreign strategic objection.By the bilateral agreement,Japan wants to free itself from the bad influence of the development of nuclear energy including the political restrictions both at home and international,technological and material insufficiency.Then Japanese competence and independence of using nuclear energy and can be improved.To present the overview of US-Japan cooperative relation of nuclear energy after Cold War and observe the development of US-Japan alliance relation,we should study the background of signing US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in different period,understand the main content of the agreement and analyze the impact of the agreement on Japanese development of nuclear energy,which are also good for the discussion on the content of international bilateral nuclear cooperation and the evolution of the system taking US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement as an example.This paper text includes four sections.Based on the observation of the background of signing US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in 1955,the first section is the analysis on US-Japan unequal relationship in terms of the supply of enriched uranium and the discussion on the foundation role of the agreement to Japanese nuclear development.The second section is about that US made a concession to Japan to advance the establishment of nuclear non-proliferation system and set the new system of US-Japan nuclear cooperation with the core of “co-determination” under the background of the diversion of international forces and French and Chinese successful nuclear weapon experiments in 1960 s.The analysis on Japanese raised independence of using nuclear energy is also included in the second section.The third section focuses on the background of signing US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in 1988 and major changes.This section embraces the analysis on the establishment of “package determination” and its promoting function to the development of Japanese nuclear power industry under the setting of the growth of Japanese nuclear industry,the shift international nuclear power market and American amendment of nuclear non-proliferation politics.The fourth section is that US-Japan nuclear energy cooperation moves forward to nuclear security and nuclear safety with the influence of September 11 attacks and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.This section also predicts the new trend of US-Japan Nuclear Cooperation Agreement that will expire in 2018 and the future of Japanese nuclear development.