In the wake of North Korea’s latest missile test, Japanese politicians are once again raising the possibility of their country developing nuclear weapons. Former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said his nation should discuss building a nuclear arsenal, Kyodo News reported Monday.

“It is common sense worldwide that in a purely military sense it is nuclear that can counteract nuclear,” said the conservative politician in a speech in his constituency. “North Korea has taken a step toward a system whereby it could shoot without prior notice,” he said. “We have to discuss countermeasures.” The statement was made after Pyongyang declared it would resume its nuclear program to protest the United Nation’s condemnation of its satellite launch.

Nakagawa was Japan’s finance minister until February this year, when he was forced to resign after he appeared tired and incoherent at a G-7 press conference in Rome.

This is not the first time Nakagawa has broached the controversial subject of Japan acquiring nuclear weapons. In 2006, he proclaimed that a nuclear arsenal built for defensive purposes would not violate Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Nor is Nakagawa the only politician in Japan who has discussed nuclear weapons. Former Japanese prime ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Shinzo Abe have also said that Japan should consider developing nuclear weapons.

A nuclear Japan would be very different from a nuclear North Korea or Iran as far as capability goes. Japan already has a highly developed civilian nuclear industry—it plans to produce over 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear power by next year. Japan has the ability to build a bomb very quickly if it wanted to.

Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of Japan’s Liberal Party, said in 2003: “We have plenty of plutonium in our nuclear power plants, so it is possible for us to produce 3,000 to 4,000 nuclear warheads. If we get serious, we will never be beaten in terms of military power.”

Japan does have the potential to quickly become a major nuclear power.

But the idea of building nukes is still far from mainstream. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura immediately ruled out Nakagawa’s suggestion that Japan develop nuclear weapons. “It is clear that nuclearization is not an option,” he told reporters in Tokyo. “Japan’s policy has always been the three non-nuclear principles of no production, no introduction and no possession.”

Japan must hold new elections by September. The current government of Taro Aso is very unpopular. Ichiro Ozawa, who wrote in his book Blueprint for a New Japan that Japan must stop relying on the U.S. and become an independent military power, could easily become the next prime minister.

Spurred on by aggressive actions by North Korea, watch for Japan to become more militaristic.