At the end of WWII, the begining of a new era for Japan started. Having a constitution written by various parties in 1947 Article 9 said:

" Japan "forever" renounces war and "the threat or use of force" in settling international disputes. Therefore "land, sea, and air forces" will "never" be maintained. "

While this served its purpose for a long while as Japan went on the road to first recovery and finally to become a major player on the field of world economy, it no longer has realistic goals nor serves Japan in the role envision by its originators.

First there exists a member of the Axis of Evil, AKA North Korea, whose test firing of missiles into the Sea of Japan sent a wake up call to all that have interest in the region. Those parties include:

1) South Korea
2) Japan
3) Taiwan
4) China
5) United States

It has now become obivious to many in the Japanese government that wording of Aritcle 9 servely limits the ability of Japan to protect itself and her citizens. It is suggested in the linked article that Japan begin to develop a more offensive/defensive posture that would allow it develope weapons systems that would protect the nation from rogue regimes such as North Korea.

Secondly it is my personal view that were this to happen that the PROC, would have to re-evaluate their stance on such issues as Taiwan AND North Korea. Probably one of the things that scare them the most is the resurgence of a Japanese military. Knowing that such a military would be more than quite capable of inflicting damage on them the PROC, might certainly be more willing to enter into the negotations that are going on between the US, and North Korea.

Third, it has also been suggested by this writer, although, I really would NOT like to see it happen, that should those aforementioned talks go nowhere and North Korea continues along its nuclear path, then perhaps it might be time to quietly "encourage" the nations of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea to perhaps move in a smiliar direction. I do believe faced with the prospect of a nuclear tipped Japan , South Korea, and Taiwan ( all three of which could probably develope the weapons much faster than N.K), that the PROC would be more than happy to help dismantle the "Beloved Leader"'s nuclear ambitions.

All of the above scenarios do not paint a very rosey picture for the region of East Asia. However, I would like to suggest an alternative that would perhaps help to stem the tide of the proliferation of WMD's.

A joint action by the nations of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States to aggresively seek to develope extremely sophisticated anti-missile systems would serve to the benefit of all parties concerned. It would fall within the parameters of Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, it would create a viable defense for both Taiwan and South Korea from the PROC and the North Koreans respectively, and for the US it would lessen the burden of the costs that would be involved.

The Deployment of such advanced systems would have a profound effect on the region. Certainly it would negate the agenda of North Korea immensely, that agenda being the reunification both Itself and South Korea under the "guiding hand" of the Beloved leader. It would also stymie the ambitions of the PROC, to dominate the region militarily by rendering its arsenal of WMD's ineffective.