None. But they’d be able to produce nuclear weapons easily.
In 2012, Japan was reported to have 9 tonnes of plutonium stored in Japan, which would be enough for more than 1,000 nuclear warheads, and an additional 35 tonnes stored in Europe.
[39][40] It has constructed the
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which could produce further plutonium.
[39] Japan has a considerable quantity of
highly enriched uranium (HEU), supplied by the U.S. and UK, for use in its
research reactors and
fast neutron reactor research programs; approximately 1,200 to 1,400 kg of HEU as of 2014.
[41] Japan also possesses an indigenous
uranium enrichmentplant
[32][42] which could hypothetically be used to make highly enriched uranium suitable for weapons use.
Japan has also developed the
M-V three-stage
solid-fuel rocket, somewhat similar in design to the U.S.
LGM-118A Peacekeeper ICBM, giving it a missile technology base. It now has an easier-to-launch second generation solid-fuel rocket,
Epsilon. Japan has experience in re-entry vehicle technology (
OREX,
HOPE-X). Toshiyuki Shikata, a
Tokyo Metropolitan Government adviser and former lieutenant general, said that part of the rationale for the fifth M-V
Hayabusa mission, from 2003 to 2010, was that the re-entry and landing of its return capsule demonstrated "that Japan's ballistic missile capability is credible."
[43] A Japanese
nuclear deterrent would probably be sea-based with
ballistic missile submarines.
[44] In 2011, former Minister of Defense
Shigeru Ishiba explicitly backed the idea of Japan maintaining the capability of
nuclear latency:
"I don't think Japan needs to possess nuclear weapons, but it's important to maintain our commercial reactors because it would allow us to produce a nuclear warhead in a short amount of time ... It's a tacit nuclear deterrent"
[43]
en.m.wikipedia.org
