Atomic bomb survivors' groups and others in Japan have denounced remarks by a security official in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's office advocating that Tokyo should possess nuclear weapons, local media reported.

Representatives of four atomic bomb survivor groups from Nagasaki on Wednesday issued a protest statement during a press conference, saying that those remarks were unacceptable, and called on the Japanese government to uphold the country's Three Non-Nuclear Principles, which prohibit possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear arms, Kyodo News reported.

The statement said that arguments in favor of Japan's nuclear armament trample on the 80-year journey of atomic bomb survivors who emerged from an era of immense suffering and therefore cannot be tolerated. It also urged the government to abandon a security policy that relies on nuclear deterrence.

Tadako Kawazoe, head of the A-Bombs Survivors Liaison Council of the Nagasaki Peace Action Center, warned that such remarks could turn Japan into a country isolated by the international community and said Takaichi herself should reject the idea of Japan possessing nuclear weapons.

Shigemitsu Tanaka, head of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, said Japan must never be allowed to become a perpetrator of nuclear harm and stressed the need to curb any such trend.

The protest comes after an official, who is involved in devising security policy under the government led by Takaichi, told reporters on December 18, "I think we should possess nuclear weapons," inciting backlash from locals, including atomic bomb survivors.

On Monday, Satoshi Tanaka, 81, representative director of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), said, "The remark spoils the 80 years of progress Japan has made as a 'pacifist nation.' Japan's position needs to be reconfirmed," during a news conference held in the city of Hiroshima by seven A-bomb survivors' groups from Hiroshima Prefecture, The Mainichi reported.

Also on Monday, a separate A-bomb survivors' organization named Hiroshima Hidankyo, chaired by Toshiyuki Mimaki, issued a statement saying, "The remark denies the three nonnuclear principles and rules out Japan's role as a bridge within the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime and is absolutely unacceptable. We lodge a stern protest against it."

The statement emphasized, "The only way to avoid the threat of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them," calling for Japan to uphold the three nonnuclear principles and to legislate them.

The Hiroshima Alliance for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, a civil group known as HANWA for short, condemned the official's remark in its statement, saying, "Those are words one would never utter as a human being if they sincerely listened to the voices of nuclear victims."

The Hiroshima Congress against A- and H-Bombs sent a letter of protest to the Japanese government, urging that the remark in question be retracted and that the official who uttered it be dismissed.

(With input from agencies)