in brief Marking the 1945 atomic bombing, Nagasaki mayor Shiro Suzuki demanded the abolition of nuclear weapons. She said the government would defend realistic and practical measures to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Questions around Japan's nuclear weapons policy have been raised after defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi recently called for a "taboo-free" national debate on the subject. In December, an unnamed senior administration official told local media in an off-the-record session suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons. It remains the only time that atomic weapons have been used in warfare.