Comment by Dalewyn
4 days ago
>Japan and South Korea are going to rapidly develop nuclear weapons programs.
Japan would need to amend their constitution for that, and that is simply not happening. They have failed to amend their constitution for much more mundane objectives, let alone nukes.
So that just means that if they ever make the political decision to pursue nuclear armament, they’ll call it the Japan Strategic Self-Defense Force.
As it is, Japan probably already has nukes that are all-but-assembled. Even if they don’t, they’re at most a handful of months away from taking whatever steps remain for a highly advanced industrial economy with existing nuclear infrastructure to finish building a bomb or two.
That would absolutely happen if China invaded Taiwan and the US stood by twiddling its fingers.
Remember, Sweden and Finland were staunchly against NATO membership until Russia invaded Ukraine.
National attitudes have a remarkable ability to shift in response to neighbors getting invaded, as we learned a couple of years ago.
Japan could of course do it in secret, like others have.
In a complete disregard for the rule of law? Which other democratic countries with anti-nuclear constitution had a secret nuclear program?
Japan, among many other countries, subscribes to the idea that the milder law prevails. If an action was illegal but it was made legal after the fact, then it was legal. Similarly, an unconstitutional action can be made constitutional after the fact.
Constitutions are not supposed to be absolute constraints. They are not supposed to prevent a country from doing what is reasonable or necessary, as long as people are willing to accept that it was reasonable and necessary.
Military breaks constitution all the times, including in US. I believe most constitutions have anti torture stance, but most military have torture camp.
Israel, though I don't think they have it in their constitution (they don't have a constitution).