So if the Americans go out of Japan because of budget problems, the treaty is now broken Japan can now build weapons maybe they will be better than the Americans. Japan has a very advanced nuclear technology that they can assemble a Nuclear Weapon in just days. Japan has many breeder reactors that can make many plutonium that is used for nuclear weapons.

The hell? You think because of Japan's past agression, it can't handle nukes? Thats its always going to attack other nations whenever it has the chance? Give me a break.
Besides, if Japan starts anything funny again, you Chinese can b!tchslap them back into the stoneage which I don't have a problem with.

Whats the fu-king problem here? Why are you so concerned? Is it because they are obsessed maybe with suicide and death and would launch nukes not caring if they get nuked themselves?

Lol.

But you might show a little respect for a Nation that, for all intents and purposes, could have left you to the wolves after WWII. You know, the same nation who instead helped destroy the postwar inflation, unemployment and shortages everywhere. In about 15-20 years after WWII.

Also, since more crimes are committed on the Japanese by OTHER JAPANESE PEOPLE, alot of you can nix that bull$hit about us Americans raping your little girls and $hit.

actually...what you just posted is the biggest load of bull$hit I've seen posted in this thread.

The fact of the matter is, there shouldn't be any or extremely little crimes committed by foreigners, ESPECIALLY foreign occupying military.

Yes, there are more crimes committed my Japanese people than foreigners because there are more Japanese people than foreigners. A common trend in statistics, very linear. More crimes are committed in America by Americans than foreigners. More crimes are committed in Canada by Canadians than foreigners. What's your point? When a Russian diplomat DUIs and kills a pedestrian, it becomes an international incident, it becomes more significant than multiple crimes committed by citizens of that country. Cause it isn't your country!

The fact of the matter is, there shouldn't be any or extremely little crimes committed by foreigners, ESPECIALLY foreign occupying military. If anything, crimes committed by foreigners should ONLY be by drunk tourists who don't know better. Don't try to downplay rape by your servicemen by using local crimes as an excuse.

I have no arguments with your initial statement, yes Nakasone Yasuhiro really should've moved towards a more assertive defence policy. And yes, the US was smart to help Japan redevelop. But Japan is self-dependent now, the US military bases located in Japan are no longer required. The US is lucky that Asia doesn't act the same way as the middle east, or you'd have one hell of a $hitstorm in that area.

Lets just suppose that China and the Koreas for instance become so powerful miltarily, that if Japan ever decides to start $hit with them again, Japan will this time pay dearly. But it still feels to me that if Japan ever does start up its own military, gets nukes, build Gundams, etc. The Chinese and Koreans for instance will still $hit their pants no matter how powerful they are.

I don't give a fu-k how many tanks, jet fighters, bombers, artillery, etc. you have. One Gundam, everything else is wiped out. You use the tanks and other ground vehicles as soccer balls and the planes as baseballs, simple as that.

i can tie a rope around the gundams legs and itll be GG

Just like those AT-AT walkers in Star Wars Episode 5 eh?

Lets just suppose that China and the Koreas for instance become so powerful miltarily, that if Japan ever decides to start $hit with them again, Japan will this time pay dearly. But it still feels to me that if Japan ever does start up its own military, gets nukes, build Gundams, etc. The Chinese and Koreans for instance will still $hit their pants no matter how powerful they are.

what do you mean, korea and japan isint going to get rid of western influence. its part of being allies with each other.

I agree in that China, Korea and Japan should be more united, have better relations and kick out American and Western political influence from that area as well.

If they do become united, it should be in the sense of how all democracies are meant to be united together.

Like that's even possible. You're talking about cultures that were isolated from each other for centuries all of a sudden uniting as one? Does that make any sense?

US was also largely responsible for bringing Japan to 2nd largest economic power status that it enjoyed.

I'm not saying united like being one country. I say united at least to be friend and stop condemning each other over petty matters.
Then how can Japan can be an ally to a country that drop a nukes over their cities? You can be united with a country that reside on the other side of the world, with totally different culture. yet you can't unite with a countries that's your neighbours and share many cultural traits. how's that make sense?

I thought Japan was banned/never allowed to build up any type of military ever again.

As we have repeatedly noted in these columns, Koizumi proved remarkably successful in locking the major industrial corporations or zaibatsu, of Japanese industry into far reaching co-development programs with the cutting edge high-tech giants of the U.S. military-industrial sector to co-produce anti-ballistic missile systems. Even had Abe, or any other possible successor, wanted to abandon those programs, he could not have done so without causing major financial damage to huge corporations such as Mitsubishi, and thereby endangering Japan's real but still gradual recovery from its long recession.

However, Abe has already made very clear he is determined to do more than that, He is eager to accelerate the pace of ballistic missile defense development with the United States.

This is very good news for the Bush administration and for the U.S. high-tech defense giants, especially Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor on the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor. It could not come at a better time for them.
Abe, however, inherits a bulging treasury and a much more robust domestic economy from Koizumi. And the anticipated fruits of sharing in America's high-tech programs have boosted the confidence of the heads of Japanese industry. That means the flood of Japanese high-tech orders, especially for co-production of the Patriot, will continue as Koizumi and President George W. Bush anticipated.

As we have opreviously noted in BMD Focus, Japan is now America's most important global ally in the development of global missile defense. No other American ally in the world can compare to the financial and industrial resources Japan is now bringing to the development of BMD. Japanese corporations led by Mitsubishi industries are expected to be building Patriot PAC-3 missiles under contract within the next few years. Japan's corporations have expressed to Boeing and other high-tech U.S. corporations their eagerness to explore the technologies involved in the development of airborne lasers or ABLs. And Japanese industrial technology has been at its outstanding best when it has been steadily and incrementally upgrading ambitious technologies initially invented but insufficiently developed elsewhere.

Ironically, Koizumi's success in ensuring the succession of his own chosen heir may help keep the American BMD programs moving even if Bush fails to prevent the election of a Democratic president in 2008. For all the skepticism that Democrats have expressed about the viability of BMD, it is very unlikely any Democrat in the White House would dare to scrap or prune back highly lucrative co-development programs with Japan. Therefore even in the way he left office and handed over the reins of power, Koizumi proved to be a dream partner for Bush in ensuring the survival and success of the defense programs the American president cherished the most.

Bad history. Ever look at Africa? African nations are closer to Europe than they are to other African countries, even with imperial history because Africans don't get along with Africans that well.

But, much of whether or not Japan will get along with other Asian countries depends on how soon North Korea and People's Republic of China can fall. If they democratize immediately, then their respective governments will work together and maybe form an Asian Union. Because, history has proven that democracies don't go to war with other democracies. This is a political theory created by liberalists, that with the spread of democracy comes with more peace.

Look at Europe, who in Europe holds a grudge against Germany anymore? Sure, they used to be at each other's necks, but they're getting along better. Still lots of tension, but Europe is more united than even the Latin Americas and Latin America almost has a uniform culture.

Does you no good to compare Japan with Germany. It just makes the deficiencies in Japanese foreign policy more pronounced. How's this? You don't share good relations with other Asia nations because you fu-ked up, and continues to fu-k up, end of story.

Point is, that this is something that can be mended with time.

Point is, that this is something that can be mended with time.

Right, and I guess I should be telling you to get over 9-11 since it's not in anyone's interest to throw imbalance into Middle East situation.

Do NOT meddle in the affairs of this issue unless you have better statement than 'get over it', because I can always reply with 'why the hell should I?'

New here, 2nd post----replied in other thread kinda the same subject----GET OVER IT---- i would say to anyone bringing up any reason Japan shouldnt have whatever military they want, nukes and all. I only wish they moved faster and started 10 years ago.

No country on this planet hasnt made huge mistakes in the past and to single out Japan and say we should be worried they want to take over the Pacific again is rediculous. There is a country that does want to dominate the Orient its called China duh.

The time to wake up is now. Would you want to be dependent on the US where politics is more important than defending the nation? What if the biased media made Japan their scapegoat of the day and we couldnt come help them when the time came? Thats the real nightmare i would be worried about if i was Japanese. Ive read all the military history of Japan and all i can think of is i want them on our side. Whose interest is served by a weak Japan?

China, while they continue to upgrade at a furious pace. Do people honestly beleieve China spending all that money for a military they dont plan on using?

China is not a democracy they are planning on a long term deep level the cunning people they are so proud of claiming to be they are not planning on the next 4 years like the average dimwit American does(the half of them that even care).

They are flooding the world with cheap goods destroying their manufacturing base and uzing the money on the military who btw owns the companies making the cheap goods (imagine the poor people duin all the work). Its brilliant and its working. We need to think of the future and move beyond apologies and garbage politics. The first and foremost role of government is to protect the people and until Japan is armed the same as China their government is letting their people down and gambling the lives of every citizen there

I think they will.....

Japan feel threathened by North Korea.

Also animosity from China and Korea over WWII issues will gave them excuse to defend themself.......

That's means having their own military.

Japan got money and technology to build their military power.

They already do. All they have to do is to rename their SDF and buy some more offensive-oriented weaponry.
That's a bullsh!t excuse given out by the Japanese right-wingers to gain support of their citizens to bringing back a fully-fledged military. North Korea, at their best, doesn't even possess a realistical threat to Japanese mainland.
Another bullsh!t excuse given out by the Japanese right-wingers.
Again, they already have a military. What else would you go calling a group of professionally trained soldiers who run around in uniforms with avant-garde equipment and singing the same choir?
If it means unnecessarily pouring billions of dollars to making more over-priced junks that can't even perform properly on the field, then by all means.

I agree with much of what you said, but what doesn't perform correctly in the field? Japan if nothing else is a nation of perfectionists when it comes to anything they build.

blah blah blah china is scary wah china wants to take over the world

Most Americans would like to see a strong Japan

But not *that* strong =p