1. Japan is undertaking more of a role worldwide as a normal nation, contributing to international humanitarian missions, etc.
2. Defense spending is only 1% of GDP anyway. This is a tiny amount. There's no reason why Japan cannot adhere to its pacifist mission and spend 2% of GDP on defense at the same time.
3. The threat from North Korea has escalated substantially in recent years.
4. The US is losing influence as a major ally, and may no longer defend Japan as staunchly as it did before.
5. China is rapidly building up its forces.

I wouldn't seriously worry about NK as threat to SK or Japan, after all NK is collapsing and I don't think they will last long, unless they fully openup.

Relating to US losing influence as major ally is not really true, their influence is stronger than we think. US-Australia alliance will be the major player in pacific, even US pulled out from Sk and Japan, US still be able to influnce pacific.

Yes, China is rapidly building its force, but that's new thing. China was building their massive defence force ever since their became communist state.

Also agreed with japan taking more responsiblities in peace keeping missions, but SK is also taking this part seriously. So far Japan have contributed more to UN in terms of $$$ compare to China and SK combined, which show Japan is desperate to be seen as peace lover. But SK have sent more troops to trouble spots than Japan or China, SK's eace keeping forces r now in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Africas, east-Timor etc.. and more peace keeping missions are given to SK as all previous SK's peace keeping turn out 2 b successful.

Agreed on all parts.

disagee with 3 but strongly agree with the rest.

Japan should definatly build up it's military, I'd like to see some unique Japanese weaponry in their arsenal instead of those boring old F-15 Eagles, M-16 rifles and M1 tanks (named Type-90s by the Japanese).

Japan, like North Korea, South Korea, China, all countries have the right to arm themselves, the post WWII constitution is archaic with the needs of Japan today and needs to be burned...all of it burned!

For Asia to be completely free from western colonialism, ALL Asian countries including Japan and the DPRK should be allowed to build up their military. I would like to see the Japanese Samurai class rise again and the samurai destroy all tenants of liberalism and capitalism.

As a soverign nation, Japan certainly should have the right to have its own military. However, they're really fixing on avoiding conflict all together. If that's the case, Japan's building its military is a red flag to its Asian neighbors, but you can't have your cake and eat it too anyways.

It's really the same way with China. Everyone's talking about China's advancing military, but no one has a legit claim as to why China SHOULDN'T build its military. It's tagged to GDP growth, and China needs to guard its vital supply lines, so yes, it needs a strong navy too. I'm sure Japan should err on the side of caution and suppose that the US won't always be there for it.

All countries have a right to defend themselves. Stripping a country of that right as well as their economy will only make the country pissed off, take it from the Germans as the Weimar Republic between WWI and WWII. After WWII, Henry Morgenthau was only looking for trouble disarming Germany yet again.

You clearly don't even know what the JSDF has in its inventory.

You are an idiot. The Samurai class was one of the reasons Japan was being held back and as a result, it was abolished during the Meiji Restoration in order to modernize the country.

The Japanese government should lobby the U.S. to allow the sale of the F-22s to Japan, though an indigenous effort on a next-gen aircraft is more viable ATM. I believe the JMSDF should have a greater military presence as well as a greater resolve to protect Japanese sovereignty and interests in the Sea of Japan (e.g. Takeshima and the Korean peninsula) and possibly further into the southern Pacific in alliance with ASEAN states.

Well, the US has already all but said no to F-22. So to the domestic drawing board it is for Japan, although a self-made stealth fighter jet is likely not only to be inferior to the F-22, but also more costly, and may take many more years.

Yeah, the US is pretty hard on that.

Dont sell Japan short. They have a history of taking ideas and making them better. Lets not forget they can afford just about any program they want. With the USA still providing the majority of their international security ie our military presence Japan is able if they wish to work on their own programs.

USA never let japanese go out of sight folks, it's part of US east asian policy, if japan wants full independent military then they need to give something to US that enought convince USA. And it will cost Japan dearly, and by doing so may even shrink their economy.

But at the moment, Japan is just playing card game.

I think Japan's neighbors would have to suck it up, because with them arming themselves while at the same time declaring their animosity that the Japanese have ignored for more than half a century, what assurance does Japan have in it's own home? How can Japan know if they won't attack Japan, unless Japan makes it so that they wouldn't want to?

They could apologize all they want, but some say from those countries say apologies won't work anymore. And, it seems likely they'll try to pounce on Japan the moment they smell weakness. The reason why they're doing this now, is because they think Japan is weak and the US is in decline. And, if for some reason, Japan couldn't rely on anyone else, Japan would have to rely on herself. Thus, the reason for why Japan has to expand militarily now, and endure the criticism from neighboring countries temporarily, while they still are under protection. When Japan has the ability to make it so no one would consider invading Japan, then her neighbors will become more peaceful towards her and then can they engage in mutual talks as none of them will have the ability to destroy one another. It'd be easier for the Japanese people to apologize without them being afraid.

Honestly, because of China's government, I don't think it should build up a military. Additionally, I don't think China really needs a big military right now as the sheer size and population would make occupation difficult.
However, I can't think of a reason why shouldn't China try to modernize itself in terms of technology, even in miliatry. It only seems like the logical choice for any nation. I just wish China was a peaceful Democracy, and something was done about their population problem (and I don't mean anything malicious), because I don't like the idea of a resource-hungry tyrannical empire having one of the best militaries.

I'm just hoping that the CCP will collapse in China somehow, and the people would become tolerant and less resentful of Japan and hateful towards other countries.


See, I think that's wrong, but it's true though. I would like for the American people to change US policy so it wouldn't have to be that way. For now, Japan needs to modernize its militar and try to buy from European allies as much as possible, as they may offer a cheaper modern alternative.

Democracies are not always better than authoritarian governments, and that's a fact. China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan pretty much developed under authoritarian (soft authoritarian in Japan's case) governments, and many democracies simply collapsed on their own since they were unable to adequately govern the population. The fact is, China, despite not being a democracy, is a stable, rational country that takes its actions seriously; it is not a rogue state.

Plus, equating democracies with peace is a bit silly considering how active Western powers are militarily. They were just as bad as authoritarian governments, i.e. Israel/US compared to USSR/China, so that pretty much proves that democracies are not better than authoritarian governments at peaceful resolutions.

China needs resources. Its energy is at god knows where. In the case of a conflict, any country with a real navy can easily cripple China. China needs a navy to defend its resource lines or else it's fu-ked.


The CCP collapsing would be very, very bad for China. It's better to have governing than no governing at all, and so far the CCP does a good job at governing. It's not perfect, but at least its functioning and stable. I can't say the same about all the unstable democracies like Argentina.


Back on topic,

all countries should have the right to build their militaries, and other countries being wary is to be expected. Hell, it's perfectly natural. If Mexico or Canada started rapidly militarizing, the US would be raising one large eyebrow at them. It's natural to be worried, but it's wrong to try to contain that country. If Japan wants to develop, all the power to them. Same for China, Korea, India, Pakistan, etc etc.

Authoritarian regime doesn't las long, and during this authoritarian regime, ppl suffers.
Don't think democracy will ruin CCP, democracy will make CCP more bigger & stronger than USA & Russia & EU combined.

I disagree. There's nothing to state that authoritarian regimes don't last long. The CCP has lasted over 50 years, much longer than many democratic governments in third world countries, and it is surprisingly stable. It's not the type of government that matters, but the effectiveness of the government in governing the population. You can tell me how great democracy is, but then you'll have to explain the failure of Russia in centralizing its power and the failure of so many third world democracies that were unable to effectively govern.

In all actuality, democracy will change very little in China. Why?

There are no real political parties. And guess what? It's structurally like that. Let's say that democratic elections were held in China, it'd be the 60 million CCP v. a number of no-names that have no experience in ruling, no resources, and no power. It'd be a farce democracy, regardless if you used the Parliamentary, Presidential, or the French system of multiple-representation. China's political structure and history guarantees that the CCP will keep power.

I mean, we're talking the CCP here, the party that represents ALL of China (by name). It represents big business and the farmers. It oversaw China's economic growth, and its ability to cut off corrupt officials and bad local officers makes it easy to shift blame.

You can go for a democracy, but it won't change who the ruling party will be. China would have to rewrite its constitution too.

Why should a militarily stronger China cause Japan to build up its forces?

If Japan just gets off its superiority complex about other Asians (and its inferiority complex when it comes to white people), then China and Japan would be the best of friends.

International politics are huge on such "what ifs." Sure, if Taiwan and China got along and reunified it would be all peace on earth, right? It's not that simple.

1) It's not likely to happen.

2) China and Japan have more disputes than just "superiority complex."

3) You can't predict the future, and a strong military is always your safest hedge.

Whether you like it or not, as more Chinese citizens enjoy economic success, more people gonna wants freedom, and thus Democracy will be the way China will adopt. Most authoritarian regimes didn't last long and 50 years is not long, I pity that not all Chinese enjoys freedom of speech as Chinese always have been suffered by some kind of authoritarian rules from their past dynasties and their CCP regime.

When China going to be FREE?

60 years is very, very long. We're comparing it to the creation of new Japan, S. Korea, and India, and Taiwan as independent states, and the CCP's still older.

Most authoritarian states don't last long, and most third world democracies collapse on themselves also. The PRC has existed since it was founded in 1949. It's a long time.

Assuming that the Chinese standard of living increases and China reaches Developed Nation status (which will be...what, 2049 give or take?), it would be 100 years since the CCP has been in power.

Assuming that China goes for democracy, the CCP, unless it fu-ks up, will be the one with the most advantages. Any other political party just wouldn't be able to cut it compared to the CCP.

It's true that the Chinese will want something, though whether or not it will be democracy is debatable. It could be religion, spirituality, culture, etc.

Originally I had this big long message, explaining in great detail, why democracy was better and defining some of the terms I was using. Here's the thing, when you have a liberal democracy it's just a better system of government. It doesn't matter if sometimes you have something else that works or there's times when democracy doesn't work. A liberal democracy is still a better kind of government.

Trying to compare democracy to communism, is like trying to compare horses to cars. Both, serve the same purpose, but one does it better. There are times when cars don't work, and maybe a horse is better for some, but in general a car is a better choice for transportation than a horse. Democracy works the same way.

It doesn't matter if Communism in China is stable, or even if the people experience an increase in wealth. That's not what a government's entire role is. What it comes down to is that the Chinese people HAVE to self rule, because Chinese people are humans and humans are rational beings. And, being a rational being means that they have to self-rule themselves because rational beings are completely autonomous and are self-determined, their thoughts generate from them only. Government is meant to facilitate community, and the community is put so that rational beings in that community can recieve as much as their individual rights as possible.

In communist China, not everyone has all their liberties, and some are entitled to more just because of position. Whereas, in reality, no one is entitled to more liberty because everyone who is a human being is rational and all rational beings are entitled to the same set of rights those rights are generated from their rationality alone and all are rational.


The reason why democracy is ALWAYS a better government even in times of when a democracy might fail because of the way a democracy is built. It's engineered so that it is the better form of government than Communism.

A democracy is a kind of society where liberty is best distributed. A democracy allows EVERYONE who's apart of the community to gain as much of the liberty that they're entitled to, without them taking liberty away from others. The people can vote, but laws protecting individual rights are put in place to protect individuals from the tyranny of the mob.

Communist Chinese Party's way of thinking is ego-centric, in which they're important and the citizens of the People's Republic of China are tools or resources and not seen as being the same as the party members. However, in reality they are the same because rational beings are not means to an end but are ends themselves.


Again, this is why I had origionally a long explanation because we could end up going in circles here. It's hard to say that a democracy is "just as bad" as authoritarian. We'd have to talk about what kind of criteria makes a political system bad. Democracies in the West usually use their military powers on the principle that it's their obligation to help other nations in need. It's immoral to exploit human beings and it's not moral to choose to turn a blind eye when others are in need and you are able to do something about it.


It isn't wrong to try to contain a country depending on how the country is built. If by nature, this country is built so as to where it'll exploit other countries and the government exploits the people, it has to be destroyed. It violates the natural laws of the universe which make this thing a logical contradiction and it must be terminated so as to restore the balance and harmony of the world.

If the CCP's regime's collapse would be bad for China, then maybe the CCP should just give up control peacefully and allow full-fledged, liberal democracy to take place. The CCP exploits the citizens, it doesn't allow the people their inalienable right to self-government and it's systematic corruption makes it so that the people are not people but tools. Even if the people of China love their government, having a government that is built in that matter is still immoral. However, if the Chinese people did love their government so much, then their government should feel confident that the people would continue to support them in times of democracy.

Yet, this doesn't happen because CCP members don't view the Chinese people as rational and want to continue to have the citizens of the PRC at their disposl. Additionally, the CCP don't feel confident that the people of China would really support them the CCP so much if they forced.

why is this thread turning into china related topic.

Because China is the main security issue that Japan is currently facing.

China has so much to gain from attacking Japan, a nation with no space or natural resources whatsoever.

Good thing Japan has Yasuo Fukuda as PM who is more of a pragmatist and isn't a rabid anti-Chinese retard.

true, but we could attack them and ask them money for peace plus keep their military in check... lol

no south korea????

So basically all non-democratic countries should be destroyed? Wouldn't that mean that every single nation ever built before the US should have been annihilated?

Japan should have a military. There's no real reason to it other than control over their own land.

I mean, thanks US for keeping some shred of democracy in Asia, but that thanks ran dry about 30 years ago. We all know the geopolitical reason for US military bases in Asia. It's about time both South Korea and Japan rid themselves of that 60 year old war policy and start taking control of their own affairs.

With the trigger happy North Korean still remain top threat to both Japan & South Korea, you can kiss that wishful dream good-bye!