https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-con ... 82kase.pdf
Since the end of the 1950s, Japan has made clear that it will maintain the right to develop
its nuclear arsenal. “This strategy - ‘lying between nuclear pursuit and nuclear rollback’ - is the
essence of ‘the most salient example of nuclear hedging’ among global powers”
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20 ... na/018000cTOKYO 2020 -- Japan was in possession of a total of some 46.1 metric tons of plutonium at home and abroad as of the end of 2020. Plutonium is extracted from spent nuclear fuel generated at nuclear plants, for the purpose of recycling. However, the international community has expressed concerns over Japan's large plutonium stockpile, saying it could be converted into nuclear weapons.
Japan has amassed enough plutonium to make 6,000 atomic bombs as part of a program to fuel its nuclear plants, but concern is growing that the stockpile is vulnerable to terrorists and natural disasters.
Japan has long been the world's only non-nuclear-armed country with a program to reprocess spent nuclear fuel from its power plants into plutonium.
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-japan-plu ... fuels.html
Japan's missing plutonium
1994
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 34881.htmlA non-proliferation group asked the US State Department to seek the shutdown of a Japanese nuclear fuel plant where 70kg (154lb) of plutonium - enough for nine atomic bombs - is unaccounted for.
2003
https://www.theage.com.au/world/missing ... dv57t.htmlAbout 200 kilograms of plutonium produced by a Japanese nuclear plant - enough to make 25 nuclear bombs - have technically gone "missing", Japanese authorities have revealed. But Tokyo and the United Nations' nuclear watchdog maintain that the shortfall is the result of miscalculation and measuring errors, rather than the plutonium being diverted for weapons production.
You know what I think? I think Japan has a nuclear arsenal. And I know they have to tech to send them anywhere, even to the Moon if they chose. For a thousand years they have been a militaristic people and WWII was a huge loss of face for them. It's only logical, given the evidence, that they would have a secret nuclear program much like the Israeli's (Never Again!) Not secret form the world's intelligence services of course, just secret from the average person in the street. For which it is none of their business anyway.
Moon Sniper: Japan launches Slim probe on precision landing mission, Smart Lander for Investigating Moon will aim to touch down within an unprecedented 100 metres of its target
https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... slim-probe