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26 comments on Revisiting the barrels per rig issue

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davidsmi on November 4, 2005 - 2:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Japan is far from demilitarized. They are third in total military spending ( see http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2067rank.html ), some would argue second as they believe the US numbers for China are overstated for obvious reasons. And according to this site (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_arm_for_per) they have the 20th largest standing army. In short, it is a high tech military that goes by the name of "Self Defense Force." It is one of the best militaries in the world.

I've also read elsewhere (I'd look it up, but it makes perfect sense, so I'll leave that to doubters) that given the Japanese technological infrastructure they are probably only about six weeks away from being able to produce nuclear weapons.

Just thoughts to chew on.
David

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Leanan on November 4, 2005 - 3:23pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Japan spends 1% of their GDP on the military.  China spends over 4% of their GDP on the military.  (We spend about 3% of our GDP, FWIW.)

I've no doubt Japan could build nukes if they wanted to. It ain't that hard (unfortunately).  Plus, Japan made lots of weapons and sold them to all sides during past conflicts, and they launch satellites and such, so they have the expertise.  And due to their nuclear power plants, they have the materials.

But Japan was on the wrong end of nuclear weapons, the only time they were ever used.  It's been 60 years, but they're still kind of squeamish about nukes.  I don't think they'll be arming themselves with nuclear weapons any time soon.

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