Nuclear security

Would Japanese nukes stop North Korean aggression? Tokyo taboo weakens amid NK testing

As North Korea advances its nuclear ambitions with yet another test of a long-range missile system, the once unthinkable has started to go mainstream in Japan: a discussion of the idea that Japan needs to have a nuclear deterrent of its own to survive in an increasingly unstable region.

Japan's "nuclear allergy" stems from its unique, tragic history with nuclear weapons. It is the only country in the world to suffer their impact, when the United States leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 to end World War II.

Since then, there have been brief public discussions of gaining nuclear weapons to stave off threats, such as in the '50s at the height of the Cold War, but such discussions were almost always relegated to extremists who longed for a return to Japan's imperial military heyday.