Japan will not respond to North Korea's nuclear test by developing its own atomic weapons, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday, although analysts said the nation has the technology to quickly pursue such a path.
As the only nation devastated by nuclear weapons, Japan has long held to pacifism. There's been virtually no public debate about whether the country needed nuclear weapons, although they're well within its technological grasp. But a combination of factors - including the nuclear threat from North Korea, the rise of China, the ebbing of once-strong peace movements and Japan's rightward drift - have chipped away at old taboos.
Japan prepared to launch its third intelligence-gathering satellite on Monday, enhancing its ability to monitor neighbouring North Korea two months after Pyongyang shocked the region with a barrage of missile tests.
The author argues that despite the bluster of radical politicians, Japan will add up the advantages and disadvantages of an independent nuclear-arms program, and will inevitably decide that these weapons are a loser for Japan.
Over the past several days, some top Japanese government officials have made remarks suggesting that Japan should possess the military capability to attack and destroy North Korea's missile bases before the country actually launches the weapons toward Japan.
Sixty years after the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese are beginning -- with a gentle nudge from Washington -- to talk openly about the long-forbidden subject of nuclear weapons.The post-World War II pacifism under which Japan's military is known as a "self-defense force" remains strong. But the rise of China and North Korea's nuclear ambitions have spurred what is referred to here as "active pacifism," or a more pragmatic line on defense.
The Japanese government expresses concern over the recent U.S. decision to develop a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons.
The Japanese government is planning to deploy 10 facilities by 2007 to monitor nuclear tests to comply with the requirements of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treat but also to monitor the North Korean nuclear program.
Six months after being launched, Japan?s first two spy satellites are monitoring nuclear activities and missile sites in North Korea.
For the first time since 1945, Japan is openly planning a beefier military. Moreover, for a staunchly pacifist nation, home to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a debate about having nuclear weapons, unthinkable a few years ago, is now thinkable.