In the end it does not matter how Japan acquired the ability to build the bomb. I just searched wikipedia, and it appears this ability is widely known and ackn

In the end it does not matter how Japan acquired the ability to build the bomb. I just searched wikipedia, and it appears this ability is widely known and acknowledged. It even has a name: nuclear latency [1], the ability of a state to develop a nuke on a short notice, also known as the "Japan option". Wikipedia lists that these countries have this ability: Japan, Canada, Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan. All these countries want to have friendly relations with the US, so presumably they would not build a nuke without first asking for permission. But if these relations were to go sour then we'd see a few new nuclear states. Just today there was discussion here on Hacker News about Sweden pursuing more nuclear power towards its goal to decarbonize. Sweden is not a NATO member yet. Could they one day decide that a few nukes could be the best insurance against Russian aggression? Finland is a new NATO member, just like Poland. Both share an uncomfortably long border with Russia. Both have numerous nuclear power plants. Will they one day seek nukes? Or at least seek to acquire "the Japan option"? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_latency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_latency