If only Japan would develop nuclear weapons so they can overthrow the US and no longer be their vassal. Sadly, they'd be far more likely to just use them on China so the US can nuke China without needing to be the one to directly do the deed (and therefore not have to worry about the nuclear retaliation)
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Sino
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Sure Japan is a client state, but its entire political class have eagerly bought in to the idea, and the main opposition to it within the ruling party is only on the grounds that they should get to do imperialism of their own again.
I feel like japan is pretty far down on the "Should get nukes" list. At least with the current regime.
Yeah, it's like, I would want an independent Japan, not a vassal one, but also the only people in Japan who are pushing for that are right wing nationalists who want to restore the Japanese Empire.
Is it naive to think M.A.D. is still effective deterrence?
M.A.D. works because both parties have too much to lose, but a dying US empire may no longer worry about that. I am assuming that anyone in Japan involved in such a decision would just do so at the behest of the Americans, knowing full well it will destroy Japan in the process, though even the most diehard nationalist there would probably think twice before launching a nuke.
Honestly the workaround to MAD weapons is to get a proxy to destroy itself engaging in a MAD war with an enemy of your choosing (so Japan vs China for example)
I'm assuming that on the scale and resources of a great power, there's nothing really stopping one from just nuking all potential adversaries in a MAD scenario (whether directly at war or not) to deter against this exact situation. That's why the US and Russia each have thousands of nukes, and why China is also aiming to get over a thousand. Things like international norms or plausible deniability probably fall by the wayside in an existential conflict.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking the US's strategy might be. Though it would probably be hard for them to find a proxy that is both stable enough to build nuclear weapons and also suicidal enough to use them.
Counter point 
Why would china not aim nukes at the US, at that point? You don’t want your enemy to still be standing.
Joe Biden opening his mouth and getting us into WW3 would be kinda funny.
WW3 idoims be like Loose lips sink Japan
Listen jack, the removed, they have nuclear materials - my dad told me stories of removed not being trustworthy businessmen. I tell you only cornpop was trust worthy and that took fighting him with a bicycle chain, or was he that the bicycle. Any- any-anyway, the plutonium is up to the ceiling, they want to go boom! China would be no more. I tell you so we can trust each other that I hate you like America hates you. God bless.
Always surprised to hear he is still alive.