Japan: Countering the Threat; Pyongyang's saber-rattling is driving the once pacifist Japanese to start shopping for some serious hardware.

Byline: Zvika Krieger

North Korea's test missiles landed with a harmless splash in the Sea of Japan. But they set off shock waves in Japan itself over how the country should respond to an increasingly belligerent Kim Jong Il. Under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the voices arguing for the Japanese to shed their post-World War II pacifism had already gained ground in recent years. Tokyo is now looking at bolstering specific weapons capabilities to counter increased volatility in the region.

Japan--whose annual military budget of $50 billion is one of the largest in the world--is still far from having conventional offensive capabilities. Its so-called Self-Defense Forces lack essential equipment like cruise missiles, aircraft carriers and long-range bombers. Still, the country recently completed a deal with the United States to upgrade its Aegis radar system with SM-3 intercept missiles onboard four of its destroyers. Tokyo is also in the process of purchasing Patriot PAC-III antiballistic missiles, which would be used to intercept inbound projectiles. In addition, the government recently bought fighter jets with aerial refueling capabilities. Tokyo insists that its new weapons are strictly for defense. But some of the new hardware, including the SM-3 missiles and Boeing 767 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), do have offensive capabilities.

The changed attitude is most obvious in Japan's missile defense plans. In the 1960s, when Japan built its BADGE (Basic Air Defense Ground Environment) air-defense system, it specifically rejected U.S. cooperation in the project. ...