On December 25, the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun published a government document dated December 20 about Japan's intention to develop small nuclear warheads.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki immediately refuted the report's authenticity, saying, "The government does not know anything about the existence of the document." Nevertheless, the question of a Japanese nuclear bomb remains open.

After coming to power, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet announced their intention to make a fundamental change in military policy. What was hushed up before is turning into a national program. Using the North Korean threat as an excuse, the government is urging the nation to give up the constitution's pacifist clauses, embark on the formation of powerful armed forces, put a legal stamp of approval on the right of the Japanese army and navy to participate in military operations in any part of the world together with the United States, and set up a government intelligence service modeled after the CIA.

In parallel, the government is brainwashing the public on a massive scale. Prime Minister Abe has set his government the task of "bringing patriotism back to schools." Authors of textbooks are rewriting history to whitewash the atrocities of Japanese militarism and present the wars conducted by Japan in East Asia and the Pacific in the past century as a mission of liberation which brought civilization to the invaded nations. They are emphasizing that Japan's policy in the future should not be limited to repenting for its military past.