[Skybird]

Japan was assessed eartlier this year to have the capability to build a usable nuclear warhead within 3-4 months, if needed. Whioch is no surprise, since it is a hightech nation, has all the knowledge and computers, and nuclear powerplants en masse.

I would not be surprised to learnt that in the past ten yeras or so, due to the rise of China, they already have secretly build some nuclear warheads, like I think the Brasilians also have done.

The Japanese forces may be small, but they surely have some hightech in their inventory - anything else would be a surprise for such a tech-junky nation like Japan. Training standard of their personell I never have read about, but I hope it is better than the security trainings they have in their zoos. A special characteristic of the Japanese forces is that legally it is a civilian body, and thus members can resign just at any time they want, and the industry seriously causes personell drian on the arme dfofrces by offering capable young men better payed jobs and careers. I thus do not take a high performance level in the Japanese forces as granted. And I do not compare it to the codes and self-understanding of the Imperial Japanese army of WWII.

The status of the military is under heavy dispute in Japan, a majority of the population seems to be strictly against a "regular status" army. Already renaming the defence ministry in 2007 caused some very heavy public disputes.

So, the critical factor in Japan'S military engagement (or lack of), probably is public opinion, to a more serious degree than in any Western country. There seems to be a rift between conservative military circles, and the civil society.

The conflict between US bases and Japanese residents, especially on Okinawa, was in the main about noise (flight operations), and misbehavior and crime committed by US troops: rape and bar fights in the main, also the existence of brothels in the vicinity of US bases.