I agree that the Japanese poster that was quoted was a little over the top but I agree that the amount of opposition to any move in that direction would be massive and possibly country changing. I think Japan is decades overdue for a major shakeup to get people interested in politics and get people interested in taking advantage of their enfranchisement before they turn 50.

The major reasons that America has pushed for increased militarization of Japan in the past has been a very pragmatic stance economically. Defense spending is a hugely wasteful sector in any economy (it’s generally a state enforced monopoly so there’s no competition to discourage massive bilking of government funds) and while America was spending massive amount on their cold war military they couldn’t compete with the rapidly developing economy in post-war Japan. This was only exacerbated by the major conflicts pos-tWW2 (Korea, Vietnam) and the countless minor ones (see pretty much all of South and Central America from WW2 to present, etc.).

Amongst the few “Japan cliches”, Japanese politeness, World War II imagery, that are de rigeur for all such writing, Krauthammer’s thesis is hardly new. That Japan is going to/should go nuclear has been a constant refrain from western journalists and international relations scholars of the realist persuasion since the mid sixties. The most recent “reputable” academic predictions in this vein came from Kenneth Waltz, the granddaddy of neo-realism, in the 1990s and Mearsheimer a couple of years ago.
Most people studying the post-Cold War security environment thought these two were on crack.

I suspect in a few years we’ll look on this “Japan is going nuclear” debate and have a bit of a chuckle.

if i were to apply the logic of france or china or paki-india, i would rather argue for the denuclearization of all these countries.

if one looks at this assuming the interests of an average japanese citizen, the defense treaty with US is more effective (as strategic deterrant) than if japan were to develop its own nuke (in that case, the US guarantee might have gone).
in addition, there is the analogy that if you (make it known that you) own a gun at home it is more likely the thieve would carry a gun when robbing you as well.

They did have a moderate number of people in the proto-SDF at that time, but spending was very minimal. As it says, they were relying on surplus equipment, and only really equipped for basic defence operations.

Here is a better basic article about the SDF history and capabilities.

Japan refused to have even a token military for many years, using the pacifist constitution as an excuse to keep from spending any national resources, capital or human, on military or weapons-a policy that was partly responsible for the country’s fantastic industrial development.

Not quite “many years.” Here’s the background:

In 1950, following the outbreak of the Korean War, the U.S. 24th Infantry Division was pulled out of Japan and sent to fight on the front lines in Korea, leaving Japan without any armed protection. MacArthur ordered the creation of a 75,000-strong National Police Reserve (警察予備隊, Keisatsu yobitai) to maintain order in Japan and repel any possible invasion from outside. The NPR was organized by United States Army Col. Frank Kowalski (later a U.S. congressman) using Army surplus equipment. To avoid possible constitutional violations, military items were given civilian names: tanks, for instance, were named “special vehicles.” Shigesaburo Suzuki, a leader of the Japan Socialist Party, brought suit in the Supreme Court of Japan to have the NPR declared unconstitutional: however, his case was dismissed by the Grand Bench for lack of standing.

On August 1, 1952, a new National Safety Agency (保安庁, Hoancho) was formed to supervise the NPR and its maritime component. The new agency was directly headed by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida. Yoshida supported its constitutionality: although he stated in a 1952 Diet committee session that “to maintain war potential, even for the purpose of self-defense, [would] necessitate revision of the Constitution,” he later responded to the JSP’s constitutionality claims by stating that the NSF had no true war potential in the modern era. In 1954, the National Safety Agency became the Japan Defense Agency, and the National Police Reserve became the Japan Self-Defense Forces.(Wikipedia)