Japan Talks Tough on North Korea

Now this is really ramping up the rhetoric.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

"It's irresponsible to do nothing when we know North Korea could riddle us with missiles," echoed Tsutomu Takebe, secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. "We should consider measures, including legal changes" required for such an attack, he said.

In other words Japan may need to rearm themselves to take care of the North Korean threat. That should get diplomacy moving in China to affect some kind of peaceful solution. A militarily powerful Japan with the nuclear option is the last thing they need to hold any sort of hegemony in Asian affairs.