Japan a future superpower?

Asian Countries are becoming increasingly worring about Japan, rising once again to be a military super power.

The US seems to be the only one encouraging this to happen, since US is a strong ally of japan. (I find it kinda funny that we nuked them, then became friends, and now want to be stronger allies for military purposes.

Japan's citizens really relized the need for more defense as well as offence when North Korea had a missile fly over the country of Japan last year.

Japan's Nervous Neighbors

Do you think Japan will be a major player?

keep your friends close and enemies closer.

unfortunately many countries do not believe japan has paid back what it owes for the damage it caused in WWII.

They don't even teach the kids in japan what happened... only "glossing" over the facts.

I have a friend in japan who just loves to argue with me about it... she is convinced japan was the victim

I personally believe the surrounding nations have every right to be angry

Originally posted by Lucretius
unfortunately many countries do not believe japan has paid back what it owes for the damage it caused in WWII.

They don't even teach the kids in japan what happened... only "glossing" over the facts.

I have a friend in japan who just loves to argue with me about it... she is convinced japan was the victim

I personally believe the surrounding nations have every right to be angry

I'm sure the Nanjing Massacre to them is the same thing Auschwitz is to most Germans .

Going to be a superpower? Of course, they already are.

They have the second largest miltary budget in the world and have had for years.


The US and Japan are VERY close and they realize that the A-Bomb saved Japanese as well as American lives. Plus they saw what we did as victors to them. Japan will not forget, I would rank them just beloe the UK at this point as closest ally but Japan will soon take that one over....

Good for Japan . I'd be getting a little piss too , some one keeps sending subs into thier waters . Hmmmm .

[edit on C:Friocu12e12 by Opus]

see this thread for graph

You'll see how much they spend on military compared to other countries....

Japan wants to be able to balance out the military of China in that area of the world. Plus if I had countries like N Korea shooting missiles near Japan I would be increasing my Military spending.

the UK spent 46 billion on the millitary this year... so that would put Japan in 5th place in defence spending and well below their main rival China

Japan has had a pretty rough economic ride for quite a while, but I am confident that it will eventually shake off the malaise. When that happens, watch out!

There is little doubt in my mind that Japan will not only continue to be a major player worldwide, but will begin to take on a more assertive role in East Asian politics -- and back it up with projected military power.

As is the tradition, where Japan steps in there will be friction and warfare. In light of our experiences in the Pacific War, I am one American who hopes that the U.S. and Japan remain friends throughout all this, because the alternative would be decidely unpleasant for both of us. Been there, done that.

While I cannot know for sure, I suspect that Washington sees Japan as a foil for China's regional ambitions, and is likely encouraging Japan's leaders to take on that role.

Both Japan and a soon-to-be-reunified Korea will be major players in East Asia's future, and along with China, will be jockeying for positions of advantage as the stakes continue to go up.

Throw in some nukes (in the hands of all three), and it makes for a spicy political stew.

We live in interesting times.

Soon-to-be reunified Korea?

How come my Korean friends never told me anything about this?

Besides some Korean (versions of our) hippies, chanting "our Northern brothers are just misunderstood!" when did they decide to reunify?

I think asia should be more worried about china and n. korea. Theyre the ones with nukes and manpower.

Originally posted by Lucretius
the UK spent 46 billion on the millitary this year... so that would put Japan in 5th place in defence spending and well below their main rival China

Looks like I was wrong, I was thinking of the info and it was kind of old, maybe mid 90's. Good catch!

Do you think Japan should be allowed to go nuclear?

Originally posted by Murcielago
Do you think Japan should be allowed to go nuclear?

I dont think the japanese people would allow their goverment to go nuclear. They are perhaps some of the most anti-nuclear people on the planet with a strong no-nuclear-arms policy.

Well thats the message they portray to the rest of the world. They might be sitting on the biggest nuke in the world for all I know.

Originally posted by edsinger
Going to be a superpower? Of course, they already are.

They have the second largest miltary budget in the world and have had for years.


The US and Japan are VERY close and they realize that the A-Bomb saved Japanese as well as American lives. Plus they saw what we did as victors to them. Japan will not forget, I would rank them just beloe the UK at this point as closest ally but Japan will soon take that one over....

lol, no, Japan is actually 5th, in the area of military spending. China spends about 20 billion more than them . Russia's military budget is unknown, but I would have to say that it would be round about, 65-70 billions dollars, just think about it, you'll come to a price similar to my estimate.

actually, in regards to nuclear weapons, even though they dont have any (officially) they DO have :
1. the most nuclear facilities (peaceful) in the world
2. therefore, extensive nuclear knowledge
3. large supplies of plutonium
4. large high tech industrial base

Japan basically IS a nuclear power, if they ever decide to build a bomb, or an arsenal of them, it would basically only take them the amount of time needed to actually build it, a couple of months.

I think they are re-considering there nuke policy because without nukes, they can be easily bully'd.

Originally posted by edsinger
Going to be a superpower? Of course, they already are.

They have the second largest miltary budget in the world and have had for years.

In least this year japan has the 4TH biggest military budget, but I do agree with you that it's a superpower.

source

Japan should watch it's step very carefully.

They perpetrated a holocaust of many millions all of their own and there was no Nuremburg trial of any substance over there at the end of WW2.
Estimates say they killed 20million civillians in China and God knows how many in Korea during their cruel and long annexation.

The idea that this should all be ignored and that they should 'counter-balance China or Nth Korea' by becoming more militaristic and start throwing their weight about the region is typical of the blinkered pig-headed insane 'thinking' of this current US administration (for it is they afterall doing much of the encouraging of this stupidity).

As if it is actually required anyway.

(If similar was proposed in Europe with Germany even today the rest of the European community would -go absolutely nuts......and we have all sorts of fragmented ex-USSR nuclear equipped countries to our east)

The kind of immense damage Japan (and Germany for that matter) did in WW2 will take more than a generation or two to be forgiven and a damn sight longer than that to be forgotten IMHO.

In any case, my bet is that were they to go too far too quickly the protests would be very loud and very clear in the USA itself nevermind elsewhere.