If North Korea plays true to a dictator's form, Japan will act in the only way a rich democracy can - by purchasing the means to defend itself:
Japan decided officially Friday to introduce a missile defense system aimed at shielding the country from attacks using ballistic missiles or weapons of mass destruction. The Cabinet and the Security Council, Japan's top defense policy board, decided to start buying the system from the United States next year.Prime among the reasons for adopting the system is North Korea, which is developing nuclear weapons and a ballistic missile delivery system.
It's the least the United States can do for a fresh declaration of support from a steadfast wartime ally:
As the law was to expire on Nov. 1, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its two ruling coalition partners submitted a bill to extend the period of the MSDF's dispatch by a further two years to exclusively help Washington's anti-terrorism campaign."Terrorists have not finished their operations," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. "You cannot say goodbye by citing a time limit at a time when countries are joining hands to combat terrorism."
Week after week, month after month, Koizumi's Japan, by accepting an increasing level of military, political and humanitarian responsibility is moving in exactly the opposite direction as Spain. That means, of course, that Japan is ever-closer to the United States. John Kerry might call it fraudulent, but such common purpose between two of the most powerful democracies is worth a dozen cheap, fragile treaties with countries whose leaders will turn at the first sign of danger or difficulty. One can only hope that Japan's traditionally pacifist, arguably squeamish public will better come to appreciate their prime minister's vision than the Spaniards did theirs.