The Land of the Rising Sun

He was right that Japan would remilitarize

The Plain Truth foresaw Japan’s place in the coming Asian super-alliance.

The Russian bear and Chinese dragon have long been watching as the American eagle’s global dominance wanes. Now they seek to build a global power bloc in the East to replace it. Herbert W. Armstrong believed that for a great Eastern power bloc to establish deep global influence, it would have to be comprised of more than just Russia and China.

But can Japan really ally with its blood enemy China?

Ever since Japan committed some of the worst brutality in history on China before and during World War ii, and failed to apologize in a way that soothed Beijing, tight cooperation between the two has seemed highly unlikely. Yet even in the thick of that tension, the Plain Truth predicted that one day the two Asian powers would rally together. “There is an utter inevitability of the ultimate tie-up between Japan and Red China!” the February 1963 Plain Truth said. “The big question is how long China will remain ‘red’ and survive without a tie-up with Japanese capitalism.”

Mr. Armstrong maintained this forecast even when it looked extremely unlikely, and he did so because it is based on Bible prophecy.

The April 1968 Plain Truth explained: “… Asia will ultimately be welded together into a common power bloc. It will ultimately send its military muscle into the Middle East at the return of Jesus Christ. This prophecy is recorded in Revelation 16 …. Japan will play a vital role in this battle” (emphasis added throughout).

For decades, the Plain Truth pointed to these passages in Revelation and related scriptures, and reiterated again and again that Japan would be a pillar of the future Eastern alliance that the Bible calls the “kings of the east.”

After World War ii, the U.S. eased global fears about Japanese aggression, first by disarming Japan and then with two landmark agreements. First came Article 9 of the Constitution that America wrote for Japan. This article forbade Japan from building a military larger than it needs to defend its immediate geographic arena. Next came the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, which codified Japan’s dependence on the U.S. for its defense, largely by stationing American troops in Japan and elsewhere in the region.

These measures seemed to defang Japan. But one major result of these deals was that Japan was able to pour immense resources—including vast amounts that otherwise would have gone to the military—into becoming an economic superpower. And that set the stage for a military resurgence.

Notice what Mr. Armstrong wrote in the Plain Truth, March 1971: “Japan today has no military establishment. Some United States forces are still there. But we should not lose sight of the fact that Japan has become so powerful economically that it could build a military force of very great power very rapidly.”

At the time that was written, Mr. Armstrong’s forecast strained the belief of many. But as the years went by, it became clear that he was right.

Tokyo on the Warpath

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Japan was an economic and industrial heavyweight yet still a benign power, constrained by memories of the atomic explosions that ended its past imperial exploits. But the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001—on Japan’s American ally—exposed this to be largely an illusion.

Just weeks after the attacks, Japan adopted antiterrorism legislation enabling its military to supply logistical support for America’s war on terrorism. Soon after, Japanese forces were in the battle theater. Its quick reengagement exposed the fact that this nation had not, in reality, been the benign power it had portrayed itself as since 1945.

The truth is that Japan, for decades before 9/11, had been evading strict enforcement of Article 9, which states that “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. … [L]and, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” The slow resurrection of Japan’s military actually began as early as 1950 when a National Police Reserve was established to help fill the void left by American troops sent to fight in the Korean War. Then in 1954—with Washington’s full support—the Japanese government transformed this police force into the Japan Self-Defense Force (sdf).

As time ticked by and memories of World War ii faded, the sdf gradually expanded its scope. In 1992, Japan passed the UN Peacekeeping Cooperation Law, allowing sdf personnel to take part in certain nonmilitary aspects of UN missions. Japanese soldiers were then allowed to be stationed outside Japan’s borders. So when the terrorists struck on 9/11, Japan was ready! And it used those attacks as a chance to go even further.

Soon after, Japan acquired missile defense systems, gained the capacity to fly F-2s more than 1,700 miles without refueling, and dropped 500-pound live bombs as part of training exercises. These moves, along with Japan’s deployment of troops to the Indian Ocean to help U.S. operations, comprised what the New York Times called “the most significant transformation in Japan’s military since World War ii” (July 23, 2007).

And Japan didn’t stop there! From 2004 to 2010, its march toward militarization sped up. It sent noncombat troops to Iraq, Indonesia, Nepal, Israel, Djibouti, Somalia and Haiti, all deployments that are hard to explain for a country that is supposed to have strictly a “self-defense” force. Japan also began looking to use space for military purposes. Its Defense Agency was upgraded to become a full-fledged ministry, giving it an amplified voice in the cabinet.

On March 11, 2011, the 9.0-magnitude Tohoku earthquake struck Japan, causing a tsunami and a nuclear crisis. The sdf leaped into action, coordinating and carrying out rescue operations with more than 100,000 soldiers—an utterly unprecedented number in the postwar era. “It is no exaggeration to say that the earthquake has spurred the most significant Japanese military operations since the end of World War ii,” World Politics Review wrote April 13, 2011. Perhaps most significantly, the rescue efforts drastically improved the Japanese public’s perception of its nation’s military forces. Almost overnight, the sdf was turned from a reminder of Japan’s shameful past into a source of pride for the nation’s people.

In 2013, Japan’s leaders built on this momentum as well as the nation’s growing fears of China’s aggression, North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear arsenal and the U.S.’s retreat from global leadership. They committed to a wildly ambitious defense buildup program aimed at doubling the annual spending rate to hit around ¥10 trillion, or us$68 billion, by 2027. (As of 2025, Japan is spending a record ¥8.7 trillion, $55 billion, per year on its military, putting it on target to achieve this goal.)

In early 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe commented on all these measures his nation was taking and said more were needed. “Japan cannot be locked inside a box created 40 or 50 years ago,” he stated.

On July 1 of that year, Abe led Japan in another historic step to unlock that box. Tokyo “reinterpreted” the ban on collective self-defense in its Constitution. For the preceding 70 years, Tokyo had interpreted this as limiting Japan’s forces to acting strictly in its own defense—never in defense of its allies and never in any conflict away from Japan.

The reinterpretation paved the way for the landmark Peace and Security Preservation Laws to be passed in 2015. At the same time, Japan’s massive increases in defense spending empowered the nation to greatly expand its naval power, including upgraded submarines, enhanced anti-ship missiles and, for the first time since World War ii, aircraft carriers. The Japanese also set their sights on America’s F-35, a fifth-generation fighter jet at the vanguard of modern aerial warfare, and committed to the purchase of a jaw-dropping 147 jets.

Yet another major turning point came in 2022 when Japan committed to acquiring long-range missiles and the legal latitude to use them preemptively.

These measures mean Japan can now use its large, cutting-edge military in ways that would have been unthinkable just a decade ago: If a U.S. ship is under fire, Japan can assist it; if the U.S. or United Nations are involved in a “gray zone” activity, Japanese troops can participate; if a North Korean missile is aimed at a Japanese ship, Japan can lawfully destroy it before it is launched.

These developments show that a profound transformation has been underway in Japan.

Japan Will Break from America

The April 1968 Plain Truth warned that Japan would not just rearm but would also break from its alliance with America. “Despite popular belief, Japan is not permanently committed to a pro-Western position. America has foolishly followed the policy of assuming that … Germany and Japan can be converted to the virtues of democracy in less than a generation. … Both Japanese and Germans are willing, for the present, to put up with their so-called democratic form of government—until some serious internal crisis is precipitated. … Japan tolerates her present form of government as long as it is economically expedient. If the time were ever to come—and it will come—that the Japanese could not feed off of American aid, we would witness a remarkable change in attitude toward the United States. Friendship would quickly evaporate.”

At the time that was written, American aid was flowing consistently and the U.S.-Japan alliance seemed unshakable. As such, many analysts would have scoffed at Mr. Armstrong’s warning. But in recent years, U.S. leaders have wearied of backing Japan, and the Japanese are taking note.

The Japanese are “taking our jobs,” then presidential candidate Donald Trump said in 2015. In 2019, President Trump criticized the Japan-U.S. defense pact: “If we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us at all. They can watch it on a Sony television.”

President Trump then demanded that Japan increase the amount it pays to host U.S. bases fourfold—from $2 billion per year to $8 billion. That’s their “fair share,” he said, stunning the Japanese with the seismic increase he demanded.

Trump’s first term ended before he could make the demand a reality. But for the Japanese, this was enough. The writing was on the wall. They knew it wasn’t just Trump; many Americans shared his stance. It was clear the alliance was in its final years, so they began doing all they could to reduce reliance on America and establish greater autonomy.

They worked hard to strengthen defense ties with European nations, including Germany, Italy and France, as well as Asian countries such as India, Vietnam, the Philippines and even South Korea—a historic enemy. With these nations, Japan has been holding military drills, developing weapons, making intelligence-sharing pacts and mutual troop-access deals, and forming momentous strategic alignments.

At the same time, Japan has been working fervently to boost trade ties with these and other nations. It has invested heavily in regional trade pacts, including the asean-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Japan’s leaders even began deepening trade ties with their nation’s arch rival, China.

The result of such military and economic initiatives is that Japan is no longer exclusively dependent on the U.S., and it is working to reduce the dependency further.

These changes in Japan’s relationship with America were already extremely significant. Then Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, and he returned to the White House even more “ally-weary” than he had previously been.

During his famous “Liberation Day” speech of April 2, 2025, President Trump shocked the Japanese by levying a 24 percent tariff rate on anything they wish to sell in America (though Japan has an average tariff rate of only 4.3 percent on all U.S. products). Trump administration officials said they expected the Japanese to rush to the table and be among the first nations to strike a new trade deal with America after the speech.

But the Japanese recognized that this speech wasn’t a one-off. They saw it as a continuation of a pattern in which President Trump has routinely denounced the U.S.-Japan security alliance, demanded that Japan further expand its military so America wouldn’t have to defend it, and accused Japan of cheating in its trade with America. And so the Japanese did not rush to make a new deal.

Instead, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called the tariffs “extremely disappointing and regrettable.” Japanese leaders did agree on a trade and investment framework with the U.S. later in 2025, but they also intensified efforts to reduce reliance on America. As part of this push, Japan has increasingly turned to historic enemies South Korea and China. In March, Japan invited the foreign ministers of China and South Korea to Tokyo for talks to draw their three nations closer. “Given the increasingly severe international situation, I believe we may truly be at a turning point in history,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said at the meeting.

The Japanese even said Trump’s trade measures could disrupt the U.S.-Japan defense pact. “The Trump tariffs can have a very big impact, not just on economics, but … they could have a potentially very big impact in security as well,” said Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera.

These are serious tensions placing intense strain on the U.S.-Japan alliance. They show that, just like Japan’s pacifism, the alliance that has been a defining feature of East Asia for decades could soon be history—just as Mr. Armstrong said.

Will Japan Go Nuclear?

In light of Japan’s unhinged military fanaticism during World War ii and other earlier wars, the idea of it having nuclear arms has always been chilling. But Mr. Armstrong understood that this technological and economic powerhouse could easily and rapidly go nuclear!

The July 1966 Plain Truth stated, “With China possessing the bomb, does Japan dare not build one of her own? Japan is the supergiant of the Orient, rising to dizzying heights of economic prosperity. … Japan could join the ‘nuclear club’ any time!”

The Plain Truth wrote several more such statements over the years. In April 1968, it said, “Washington officials frankly admit that they expect Japan to develop a big military establishment to assist the U.S. in Asian power politics. One Tokyo observer stated that the United States has no other alternative but to push Japan toward eventually becoming a thermonuclear power.”

It is true that Japan already has a highly developed civilian nuclear industry and is home to thousands of top-of-the-line physicists and engineers. If it decided to do so, it could become an independent nuclear power within a single year. This potential is only a “screwdriver’s turn” away from being realized, analysts say. And voices within Japan calling for that “turn” are growing louder.

“Japan should absolutely possess nuclear weapons,” Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said in 2011.

“We should not put a taboo on discussions about the reality we face,” Shinzo Abe said in 2022.

Japan must “consider America’s sharing of nuclear weapons or the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region,” Shigeru Ishiba wrote in 2024 shortly before becoming Japan’s prime minister.

Such statements, alongside Japan’s ever improving technology, show that the nation will inevitably join the “nuclear club,” just as the Plain Truth prophesied—and very soon.

Japan’s Place in the Alliance

Some specific details of how the “kings of the east” Eastern superpower of Revelation 16:12 will form in the end time are still unknown, but prophecy is unmistakably clear that it will happen. And it will include Japan, just as Mr. Armstrong often said.

The modern peoples of Japan and China remain unsettled by the violence that saturates their shared history. And both sides are worried by the other side’s current military buildup. But they will soon bury the katana (Japanese sword) and join forces!

Much of the groundwork has already been laid for the development of this alliance. And as U.S. influence and will to lead the world fades, not only Japan and China, but also Russia and other Asian states will continue to reposition themselves, laying the foundation for deep cooperation.

All it would take is a major crisis to spur the Japanese into action.

It is possible that in the event of a regional crisis, Japan might be able to persuade other China-wary Asian nations like India, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam to form an alliance to counter the congealing China-Russia axis. But Bible prophecy shows that even if Japan does form some kind of counter-alliance, it would not be long before this Japan-led bloc would throw its lot in with China and Russia.

The stage is being set for the giants of Asia to join forces, including those with rivers of bad blood between them. It is happening just as Mr. Armstrong said it would. Now all it will take is a sudden catastrophic shock to weld the union together. Once united, “the kings of the east” will stun the world with their unfathomably powerful and destructive alliance.