Many nuclear observers note that Japan has gathered the tools, technologies and materials necessary to start a substantial nuclear weapons program at fairly short notice.
Japan recently returned a large quantity of weapons-grade plutonium to the US -- sufficient to start its own nuclear weapons program -- but only after it had broken ground on a plant that would enable the country to enrich its own "suspiciously large" stockpile of plutonium.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, uses solid-fuel rockets. This choice limits the size of payloads JAXA launch, but it's ideal for nuclear missiles.
Japan recently returned a large quantity of weapons-grade plutonium to the US -- sufficient to start its own nuclear weapons program -- but only after it had broken ground on a plant that would enable the country to enrich its own "suspiciously large" stockpile of plutonium.
Japan's space agency, JAXA, uses solid-fuel rockets. This choice limits the size of payloads JAXA launch, but it's ideal for nuclear missiles.