Japan has stockpiled some 44.4 tons of plutonium, enough to make thousands of nuclear warheads, Chinese Arms Control and Disarmament Association Secretary General Dai Huaicheng warned yesterday.

• 9.9 tons of allocated plutonium are stored in Japan, and 34.5 tons are stored overseas. Six thousand or more nuclear bombs could be built with these quantities.

Fuel or weapons? Japanese authorities say the plutonium stockpiles are intended for use in the nation’s nuclear reactors. But as calls grow among Japanese policymakers for the nation to develop nuclear weapons, Dai, like many in China, remains unconvinced.

“Japan just has the technology and facilities for the processing and further allocation of weapons-grade plutonium, which makes the border between civil and military use extremely blurry.”
—Dai Huaicheng

A screwdriver’s turn away: Analysts have noted for decades that since Japan possesses a highly developed civilian nuclear industry and a pantheon of world-class physicists and engineers, it could develop nuclear armaments in a matter of months.

• The Japanese need only “five minutes and a screwdriver and they have got a nuclear capability,” security consultant Alex Neill told Asia Times in 2022.

Nuclear weapons would add a profoundly ominous dimension to a military already undergoing a historic expansion. In recent years, Japan has sharply increased defense spending and dramatically expanded its combat capabilities, including by introducing long-range strike weapons to its arsenal.

Japan’s increasingly militaristic posture may appear reassuring to Americans, given its alliance with the United States and both nations’ interest in countering China. But Bible prophecy warns that Japan will change its allegiance to Russia and China—against the U.S.

To understand what Japan’s mushrooming military might and its prophesied change in allegiance mean for the future, read “Japan’s Coming Betrayal of America.”