Commentary
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stirred profound defense policy changes in Europe and Asia, with once-neutral Sweden’s and Finland’s bids to join NATO a prime example.
In East Asia the invasion and Russian president Vladimir Putin’s threats to attack his enemies with nuclear weapons has led South Korea and Japan to seriously consider acquiring nuclear weapons.
Background: the possibility of South Korea and Japan acquiring nukes is not new. Both technically adept nations have top-10 GDPs and high-tech infrastructure. In Japan leaders have theorized about Japanese nukes. In 1957 then-Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi told the Diet that he thought the pacifist postwar Constitution did not explicitly forbid Japan from having nuclear weapons—if they were very small….