A source within Japan's prime minister's office said Thursday that the country needs nuclear weapons, remarks that deviate from the country's long-standing non-nuclear principles and could trigger backlash at home and abroad.
Japan has been allowed a self-defense force. What that force can consist of/have/do has been quite restricted. They’ve built a lot of stuff that they probably technically aren’t allowed to but have said “oh, that’s not a ThingWeCannotHave but a SimlarButAllowedOrReducedThing”. Recent rumblings have been about what constitutes self defense, which some wanting to include attacks on Taiwan, cyber warfare, pre-emptive strikes, and other stuff.
Then there are the factions that want to strip out the article of the constitution about self-defense-forces-only entirely. Unless I missed it, this has yet to be done.
As for nuclear weapons, I don’t actually know if that’s covered anywhere in the constitution or self-imposed. We’re only recently getting to the point that there aren’t really any survivors left, but their kids are still around and many fight against having it. As the US becomes a less-reliable ally, I see this resistance falling. Tension has always been high, particularly in Okinawa which always get shafted, between the US forces and civilians and I suspect it will continue to increase.
Japan has been allowed a self-defense force. What that force can consist of/have/do has been quite restricted. They’ve built a lot of stuff that they probably technically aren’t allowed to but have said “oh, that’s not a ThingWeCannotHave but a SimlarButAllowedOrReducedThing”. Recent rumblings have been about what constitutes self defense, which some wanting to include attacks on Taiwan, cyber warfare, pre-emptive strikes, and other stuff.
Then there are the factions that want to strip out the article of the constitution about self-defense-forces-only entirely. Unless I missed it, this has yet to be done.
As for nuclear weapons, I don’t actually know if that’s covered anywhere in the constitution or self-imposed. We’re only recently getting to the point that there aren’t really any survivors left, but their kids are still around and many fight against having it. As the US becomes a less-reliable ally, I see this resistance falling. Tension has always been high, particularly in Okinawa which always get shafted, between the US forces and civilians and I suspect it will continue to increase.
~ Dude living in Japan for a bit over a decade.