ABSTRACT
The leadership of mainline Japanese big business favors only a modest military program and so far opposes nuclear armament. The discussion on Japan's nuclear development appears to be dogged by a number of preconceptions that are at this point in danger of becoming prematurely entrenched. The distrust of Japan throughout the world would increase enormously. Even more remote is a military threat to the Japanese homeland from South or Southeast Asian countries. Japan's right has always favored rearmament, larger military budgets, independence, big power status, and nuclear weapons. The sensitivity to anything nuclear also underlies the powerful mass movements against the entry of US nuclear-powered ships into Japanese ports. Permanent launch sites on the Japanese home islands would be too vulnerable to guarantee a credible second-strike capacity. Japanese public opinion is marked by a broad consensus on a number of nuclear policy issues. The mainstream of Japanese opinion is against the adoption of nuclear weapons.
