TOKYO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- An official within Japan's prime minister's office said Thursday that Japan should possess nuclear weapons, a controversial stance at odds with the country's long-standing non-nuclear principles and could trigger backlash at home and abroad, several Japanese media outlets have reported.

"I think we should possess nuclear weapons," Kyodo News cited the source who is involved in devising security policy under the government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

During the exchanges with reporters, the official said that the security environment surrounding Japan is becoming increasingly severe, and indicated the need to discuss Japan's own possession of nuclear weapons, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

Government sources earlier said that Takaichi is considering reviewing the three non-nuclear principles, which prohibit possessing, producing or permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory.

The three non-nuclear principles were first declared in the Diet, Japan's parliament, by then Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato in 1967 and viewed as a national credo.

In 1999, then Parliamentary Vice Defense Minister Shingo Nishimura was dismissed after coming under fire for suggesting that Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons. ■