Speaking of A-Bomb and Japan. It seems modern Japan would be on one those countries that should have nukes. I know legally they are probably prohibited (just like they are supposed to have only defensive military forces). But technologically with nuclear reactors and the level of industrial and scientific development, it wouldn't take them very long to build one, it seems to me.
Many nuclear observers note that Japan has gathered the tools, technologies and materials necessary to start a substantial nuclear weapons program at fairly short notice.
Japan recently returned a large quantity of weapons-grade plutonium to the US -- sufficient to start its own nuclear weapons program -- but only after it had broken ground on a plant that would enable the country to enrich its own "suspiciously large" stockpile of plutonium.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, uses solid-fuel rockets. This choice limits the size of payloads JAXA launch, but it's ideal for nuclear missiles.
I'd call Japan a de-facto nuclear power, as they've easily got the technical know-how and the materials to become one at will. If they ever lost the US nuclear umbrella, I suspect they'd have them in short order. It wouldn't be particularly surprising if they have plans and some parts already in existence for that contingency.
Japan is protected by the USA's nuclear umbrella, and by mutual agreement shouldn't have nukes.
That said, Ukraine is also "protected" by the US thanks to a binding treaty, and we see how that's turned out. Japan has watched events in Ukraine, as well as in China's sphere of influence, and right or wrong their policies reflect their conclusions about US protection.
... and what's Japan's policy, today? They've carefully put together all the ingredients they need to build nukes on very short notice, and continue in that direction. They're glad to be on the US's "friends" list, but they're keeping an insurance policy all the same.
>That said, Ukraine is also "protected" by the US thanks to a binding treaty.
The Budapest Memorandum isn't a binding treaty. A treaty must be ratified by the Senate, but the Budapest Memorandum was just an unratified political agreement. We do however have a formal treaty with Japan that guarantees military assistance.
Furthermore it didn't say anything about the United State's obligations to protect Ukraine with our nuclear umbrella. It only said that the US (along with Russia and Great Britain) would: respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine; not use force, economic pressure, or nuclear weapons against Ukraine; and seek UN Security council action if nuclear weapons were used against Ukraine.
Nowhere does it say we are under any obligation to respond with military force if another country invades Ukraine, it just says we won't invade.
>Japan has watched events in Ukraine, as well as in China's sphere of influence, and right or wrong their policies reflect their conclusions about US protection.
Japan's constitution prohibits production of possession of nuclear weapons - all this as a result of the suffering of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nuclear anything is controversial in Japan recently because of the earthquake. Japan is also under the "nuclear umbrella" of the US on the condition that Japan will not produce nuclear weapons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_umbrella
A reading of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan's_non-nuclear_weapons_pol... makes this sound unlikely - it says in 1955 the mere consideration of equipping Japan with nuclear-capable missiles caused enough outrage that the US promised not to send nukes there without permission.
"In 1999 and 2002, The Japan Times and the Okinawa Times reported speculation that not all the supposed weapons were removed from Okinawa."
May be true, but as stated, just unconfirmed rumor.
"In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun in 1981, Edwin O. Reischauer, former U.S. ambassador to Japan, said that U.S. naval ships armed with nukes stopped at Japanese ports on a routine duty and this was approved by the Japanese government."
So, it seems the USA got permission to have nuclear weapons aboard ships in Japanese ports. There also may still be nuclear weapons on Okinawa (not that unlikely, I would say, but that's pure speculation)
