THERE has long been a yearning in far-right policy circles in Tokyo and Washington for Japan to at least consider "going nuclear", and more recently a view that if any mainstream politician could lean in that direction, it would be Shinzo Abe.
It is a critical consideration. Japan occupies a unique position on the nuclear spectrum.
Alan Dupont, director of Sydney University's Centre for International Strategic Studies, describes it as a permanent "near-nuclear state".
However, unlike the other states on the brink - North Korea and Iran - Japan is an economic superpower, with a large and complete civilian nuclear cycle, more than 20tonnes of plutonium (though not weapons-grade) and the financial, engineering, electronic and rocketry capabilities to go nuclear quickly.
Dr Dupont, who has studied Japanese military and strategic capabilities for two decades, estimates they could have a "crude but complete" nuclear weapons capability - warheads, missiles and guidance system - within two years of taking the decision.
By detonating a small nuclear device on October 9, only 13 days after 52-year-old Mr Abe became Prime Minister, Kim Jong-il's dangerous North Korean regime created the pretext for a fundamental re-examination of Japan's official strategic calculus.
The new Prime Minister has now responded, but for the likes of neo-conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer, US Vice-President Dick Cheney's close friend and a "nuclear Japan" cheerleader, he has proved a disappointment.
"There is no change in Japan's policy of keeping its three non-nuclear principles," he said. "There will be no debate within the Government on this."
That was a rebuke to senior colleagues, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa, who argued that there needed be a debate, in light of theworsening threat from North Korea.
The pretext may be fresh, but the question of Japan going nuclear is old.
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