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Japan needs nuclear weapons. Surrounded by authoritarian threats, including Russia, China, and China’s close ally, North Korea, Japan would make all democracies safer by protecting itself with a nucle

22 Comments

Forbes contributor Anders Corr

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Making the bold assumption that Japan is a democracy perhaps but I will concede it is a better one than China and North Korea.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

You know it's sad but true! @Moonraker: Japan is not a democracy? Are you confusing being modern with being western.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

He forgot another rising "authoritarian threat": the USA.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

I don't think I mentioned either modern or western. And, no, I am not confused.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Whose quote is this? Foolish in the extreme to encourage Japanese militarist and revanchist right-wing elements patiently waiting in the democratic woodwork for their chance to "Make Nippon Great Again".

8 ( +8 / -0 )

japan certainly has the technology and fuel. when he was president, Ii had doubts about obama actually defending japanese territory (senkakus) if it was invaded, other than issuing economic sanctions. less doubts now but might be cheaper than paying to house the US military.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

There is some sense in going nuclear in Japan as it would ensure its defense completely, however it would be unpalatable to most of the Japanese population. If the threats in the region grow however, I can easily see the popular sentiment changing quickly. You can bet that the Japanese Ministry of Defense has some contingency plan for a fast nuclear breakout regardless

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Neither this guy nor Trump have evidently never heard of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which both Japan and the US are signatories.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

There is the legal reasoning:

Neither this guy nor Trump have evidently never heard of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which both Japan and the US are signatories.

Then there is common-sense.

Making sensible decisions for out own lives is hard enough before we have to start to cope with people who pretend that they are our masters behaving like they are masters of some hypothetical universe.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

First of all, I agree with the above posters that Japan is not a democracy.

Japan would make all democracies safer by protecting itself with a nuclear weapon.

How so?

A stronger Japan will check China’s expansion and free U.S. military resources for deployment elsewhere

A stronger Japan will check China’s expansion. Really. A nation of 127 million with well over a quarter of its population grey and fading away is going to keep in check a superpower with over a billion and a half people? What's he smoking?

This fool hasn't a clue about what he's advocating. The LAST thing we need is an escalation in Asia. This guy's a complete Jackass.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I'd bet any money the author is on the CIA payroll. He fits the profile completely.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan's biggest obstacle as a society to going nuclear is that we still play the 100% victim when it comes to WWII. Thus the imbalanced viewpoint on nuclear weapons.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Japan is a democracy, but that aside, surely Japan arming with nukes would be against the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, as well as the will of the people? Yes, Abe does what he likes, but Abe won't be PM forever... that's how a democracy works ;)

1 ( +2 / -1 )

After what happened with Fukushima, God only knows what would happen if the Japanese military had nukes.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I'm a Japanese so this might sound somehow arrogant, but Japan's nuclear deterrence should be effective even without actually having nuclear weapons but only officially mentioning we might develop some.

But I don't believe Japan should actually develop nuclear weapons. I believe that there should be no additional nuclear club nations in the world.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Maybe Corr believes the US is a democracy too. Sorry folks, but I have higher standards for what I regard as a democracy than simply the right to vote once in a while. It needs a judiciary, executive and legislature uncorrupted by wealth or vested interests and with independent powers, with a media and a population doing a good job of scrutiny and an education system that teaches the philosophical basis for this system so that it is well understood and people's roles and duties in it are also understood. We can see that few of these exist in the rather ceremonial democracies that mostly exist around the world. They are corrupted so as to be just hollowed-out shells. But we must keep believing. In a post-truth world we can believe anything, to the point of self-delusion.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

And the Abe regime is not an authoritarian threat ? . . . .

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Maybe Corr believes the US is a democracy too. Sorry folks, but I have higher standards for what I regard as a democracy than simply the right to vote once in a while. It needs a judiciary, executive and legislature uncorrupted by wealth or vested interests and with independent powers, with a media and a population doing a good job of scrutiny and an education system that teaches the philosophical basis for this system so that it is well understood and people's roles and duties in it are also understood. We can see that few of these exist in the rather ceremonial democracies that mostly exist around the world. They are corrupted so as to be just hollowed-out shells. But we must keep believing. In a post-truth world we can believe anything, to the point of self-delusion.

Is there such a nirvana, Moonraker?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Of course, we must measure every titular democracy against some ideals, not just throw up our hands and say, "Well, no such place exists." We will then see that some "democracies" are better than others, and most are not worth the name. And no one believes democracy is a nirvana, not even the biggest supporters or theorists. It is based on a secular social contract which is actually an agreement between us all to uphold a system which is provisionally the best we can come up with. It is implicit that it must be gradually perfected through dialogue and experience. It is just that alternatives are usually exploitative and repressive, as is any deviation from the ideal, but it is not a nirvana.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan can already slap a nuke or 2 together in a couple of weeks if need be.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I'd bet any money the author is on the CIA payroll

He does claim to have spent 5 years in that great oxymoron, military intelligence.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Astoundingly DAFT.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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