| #11 While I agree with the "Trust, but verify" attitudes here, I think a re-armed Japan is nothing but good for us. They look to us for a market, have been "pacified" for over 50 years now, and would make a GREAT counter to China and NKor. When India jumps in our boat too, watch all the Chicom's sphincters tighten (Pooty-Poot's too). I'm just about sick and tired of all the "under the table" shiite going on between China and Russia and the rest of our enemies (Iran, N Korea, heck, even though they're not our "enemy", Zimbobwe too). We need to start gettin allies in their neck of the woods to start "actin' up" too. Keeps them pre-occupied on their own back yard. |
Japan on Friday created a full-fledged Defence Ministry for the first time since World War II, when the United States stripped the defeated country of its right to a military. The upper house voted by a majority, with support from the main opposition Democratic Party, to create the defence agency. The lower house had earlier passed the bill, meaning it becomes law, a parliamentary official said. Post-war Japan has had a “Defence Agency” with lower standing than full-fledged ministries as the 1947 constitution declared the country to be pacifist. Despite calling its troops the “Self-Defence Forces”, Japan has one of the world’s biggest military budgets at 4.81 trillion yen (41.6 billion dollars) a year.