In January this year, Akiba was appointed as the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. On March 5, Akiba and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied his statement, declaring that Akiba said no such thing.

According to the memo, the Congressional Commission on U.S. Strategic Posture’s Vice Chairman James Schlesinger (former Secretary of Defense) asked Akiba how Japan might view the construction of a nuclear storage site on Okinawa or Guam. Akiba replied that he would find such a proposal to be “persuasive.”