Japan’s defense posture has long relied on doublethink.

How else can you explain the nation’s ability to simultaneously be devoutly opposed to atomic weapons, while sitting safely underneath the U.S. nuclear umbrella?

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi faced those contradictions head-on recently when he referred to shifting attitudes toward such arms by countries like France and Finland. He told an interviewer that Tokyo must also “discuss all policies, without any taboos.”