Should Japan have nuclear ICBMs to protect itself?

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Trump suggested that Japan arm itself with nukes.
Japan just happens to have a very good space program with an even better success rate than the USA and Russia, so it seems logical that they could attack anywhere on the planet, if they decided to arm themselves with nukes.

Should they listen?

Does the world really need more nukes and in more hands. Most of the current nuclear powers already have enough to desotry the world hundreds of times over.

Japan is a close American ally and has the right to defend itself, we live in world where North Korea is an accepted nuclear power and regularly make threats against Japan not to mention the naval posturing by the the Chinese.

But still no reason to consider a thermonuclear attack. It's highly doubtful the U.S. would attack because of the reasons you mention (or almost anything else you could imagine as well).

Here's a "Trumpish" thought: We can probably make some money SELLING thermonuclear weapons to Japan and other allies (if they actually "wanted" any that is). We can then get a return on investment that we can't get by blowing up (or threatening to blow up) other people. But if we don't hurry up Russia (or someone else) will beat us to it and make them cheaper besides.

Maybe what Trump meant was that Japan should defend itself.

In other words, they ought to build a space based anti-missile defense system to blow up any missiles they deem to be a threat to their National Security.

Japan is also the country that's been nuked twice by us in 1945, and by itself in 2011. --I think at this point, the Japanese people are sick and tired of anything radioactive.

That being said, I think that if things get out of hand with N. Korea, they would have no physical problem building them. They have had the technical finesse to do so for many decades. The fact that they were on the recieving end of nukes would put them off.

One of the reasons for the success of Japanese electronics, cars, and other consumer goods, is that since the end of WW2, they have had virtually no Military Industrial Complex as many other developed nations have had.

I think Japan should arm itself with a nuclear deterrent and increase military budget.
So in short, yes. People there including those who have families with Okinawa military are rightfully concerned about the treaty ending due to protection, financial and international relationship reasons. However, this is an opportunity for Japan to be more self reliant.

More nukes means more potential chances for something to go wrong. If one studies the Cold War, even a little bit, one notices a LOT of chances where humanity could have simply died. Adding more nuclear weapon holding nations simply means that more people have chances for near misses. And given that we live in a world full of alliances and everything else, we're basically asking for the nuclear version of the assassination of Prince Ferdinand(WW1 reference), which if that doesn't terrify you, I have to suspect either a failure of imagination or a failure of ability to understand what is being discussed.

North Korea are a handy buffer state for China to keep on a short leash, if they toss anything at anyone China will be the first ones to eagerly dissolve that unhinged regime. Their delivery systems aren't up to scratch yet but they can legitimately strike nearby territories and when enemies of the people are all around you... absolute deterrent means you're prepared to teach the opponent a lesson and set an example to everybody else but north korea has shown that they are a rather odd nation... there's method in their madness, does that translate effectively outside the nutbox? I don't believe they are beyond comprehension of the wider picture of what surrounds them even if they keep their population in the barnyard. If Japan had nuclear weapons, it wouldn't be wise to hit a buffer state of China, they will not want a nuclear attack on their border for myriad reasons and Japan would have such a crisis of conscience with what their people experienced, this country would prove it is too irrational to be allowed to even remain isolated if it thought actually using the kitchen knife in the drawer would improve its standing. It's not wise to leave it with them but it's like you have to go in your neighbour's house and confiscate their stuff. Since Japan don't have nukes, who would nuke north korea if they hit Japan for example, what would everybody else do if you decided to respond to this oddball state? Would anybody want to nuke somewhere so close to a country that has the capability to destroy you? If they hit South Korea, the united states is going to come down immediately on their asses, they have considerable forces there permanently. I don't think nuclear retaliation would be an option seriously considered, now if they were in the middle of africa or something they would get blasted to oblivion 'finally an excuse' and I suspect many would see it as a flexing of the muscles to get the honour.

Someone pointed out that japan are extremely successful without the massive chunk of money that developing, testing and maintaining such weapon systems swallow, it is a gigantic ongoing investment, they are doing alright without relying on such a beast but times change and relationships ebb and flow...

Japan is a sovereign nation that hasn't threatened anyone in recent history so it's up to them whether or not they want nukes.

Nope. Still a bad idea. The less nukes, the less chance of random utter terror happening due to whatever million different failure points that can emerge.

How about the non-nuclear space based anti-missile defense system? I think if anyone could do it it would be the Japanese.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ormed.html
Japanese space program is way past the N. Koreans.

Last edited by BTDT on 19 Nov 2016, 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

They've got Godzilla, they don't need nukes.

Seriously, though, isn't that rather up to Japan?

I never said it was a good idea, just that Japan has a right to. They are rather close to North Korea after all...

Japan would have no physical problems with building a THOR system, but the problem lies with the fact that if they did so, it would seriously impede anybody else sending up non-weaponised sattelite systems.

I'm more open to this idea. It's defensive. There are some worries because MAD is a major policy, but... the possibility of a nation going haywire seems sufficient to maybe toss out MAD. It's certainly a lot better than nuclear proliferation, and a lot more binding if NK decides it wants to nuke somebody, as NK nuking ANYBODY is a suicidal act and very transparently so in the first place.