The number of North Korean Nodong missiles capable of targeting Japan is now thought to be some 175 to 200, rather than 100 as previously believed. Moreover, at the China-U.S.-North Korea talks in Beijing last week, North Korea taunted the United States by saying that it had developed nuclear weapons. How should Japan respond to this growing threat?
Japan's best option is to continue to rely on the U.S. for its strategic security. But Japan must appreciate that America now has much wider options than it did during the Cold War, and that China is bound to loom large in Washington's calculations. For Japan, being America's ally will not be as comfortable as it once was.
During the Cold War, Japan didn't need to worry much about its security. Japanese governments knew that the U.S. required bases in Japan in order to threaten the Soviet Union's vulnerable Far Eastern flank. Thus Moscow could not threaten Japan without inviting instant U.S. nuclear retaliation. So all of Japan was required to was to look the other way when U.S. nuclear-capable warships entered its ports.