The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is proposing to revise the Contitution that the United States more or less wrote for the nation at the end of World War II. Article 9 of the Constitution renounces the use of war in pursuit of national policy. It's important to note that in reality Japanese spending on its military (the so-called "Self-Defense Forces) is now fourth or fifth in the world. The revision would allow Japan to deploy forces outside the home islands in cooperation with other countries' militaries in "defense" of Japan or on international peacekeeping missions. The revision will be controversial. Many elderly Japanese still remember with pain the fanatic militarism of the Imperial cult that dominated Japan from the mid-1930s through 1945, even if the government itself does not fully acknowledge Japanese war crimes.
The Bush administration is quietly encouraging this development, and is, in essence, cultivating Japan as an ally in a projected confrontation with China. In addition, and very importantly, US weapons producers, including Raytheon, are very eager to change the Japanese constitution so that they can sell Tomahawk missiles, Patriot missiles, and other systems to Japan.
My impression is that the US military industry is really driving US policy in this area.
Strong nationalism is on the rise in Japan and politicians beginning with Koizumi (Prime Minister) are increasingly defending the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and initiation of the Pacific War as justified. On the whole these folks do not love America. Yet our own red-white-and-blue patriots in the Republican Party and the military industrial complex are perfectly willing to sell them advanced weapons systems. Japan is supposed to be our close ally in the projected confrontation with China.
Is a confrontation with China of the "Cold War" type inevitable? Even some progressives, such as Sean-Paul Kelly at the Agonist, write as if this is so. But certainly negotation and arms control agreements are possible. Keep in mind that US military spending is on the order of ten times that of China.
Why do we need to strengthen Japanese right-wing nationalists who glorify the Japanese Empire that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers died to destroy? So that Raytheon can profit?