JAPAN SOON TO BECOME MAJOR NUCLEAR POWER
A New Arms Race In Asia
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The shackles that have prevented Japan from becoming a nuclear power are being removed. Japan’s constitution explicitly renounces the use of force to resolve international disputes and denies Japan the right to collective security. These restrictions have been in effect since 1945. But the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the subsequent war on terror have accelerated a change in the way the Japanese view their role in an increasingly violent world. North Korea is unpredictable and has given hostile gestures towards Japan. Also, terrorists have threatened Japan for supporting the United States. All this has brought about what was not so long ago considered taboo--discussion of acquiring nuclear weapons by the only nation ever to be victims of a nuclear attack.
Japan also has plenty of plutonium in their nuclear power plants, so it would be possible for them to produce 5,000 to 6,000 nuclear warheads. If they got serious, no nation on earth would have a bigger military power accept the United States.
Japan’s principal obstacles to acquiring nuclear weapons are legal and political--but these are steadily being overcome. Anyone in the Japanese Parliament who talked about nuclear weapons has always been totally criticized. But lately that has not been the case. Now politicians, academics and bureaucrats discuss the possibility of going nuclear--though they discuss it cautiously discreetly.
Some note that Japan is not isolated in its ambitions. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has said that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program could trigger Japan to rethink whether to become a nuclear power itself. Cheney said that the idea of a nuclear-armed North Korea with ballistic missiles to deliver those would set off an arms race in that part of the world.
Despite its political hurdles, geo-strategic pressures dictate that Japan will become a well-armed nuclear power.
Japan also has plenty of plutonium in their nuclear power plants, so it would be possible for them to produce 5,000 to 6,000 nuclear warheads. If they got serious, no nation on earth would have a bigger military power accept the United States.
Japan’s principal obstacles to acquiring nuclear weapons are legal and political--but these are steadily being overcome. Anyone in the Japanese Parliament who talked about nuclear weapons has always been totally criticized. But lately that has not been the case. Now politicians, academics and bureaucrats discuss the possibility of going nuclear--though they discuss it cautiously discreetly.
Some note that Japan is not isolated in its ambitions. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has said that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program could trigger Japan to rethink whether to become a nuclear power itself. Cheney said that the idea of a nuclear-armed North Korea with ballistic missiles to deliver those would set off an arms race in that part of the world.
Despite its political hurdles, geo-strategic pressures dictate that Japan will become a well-armed nuclear power.