[quote=WilsonTurner]
EDIT:True, Japan might be good, being all Honda and everything, but it isn't much of a military place. If someone decided to invade, it's really just the police, is it not? I suppose during the war...oh yes..Well, if you want Japan, you take. I'll only take it if you insist.
[/quote]

The Japanese are constitutionally bound to have a small army. But that's even up to reform today. More-so given they and China are butting heads. Hell, the Japanese decided to add more ships to their navy in an effort to stay competitive with the Chinese dragon.

If the Chinese claims against Japan have not been acted upon before the war, they'd certainly be moved on during it. And it'll be a hell of a fight and I'm sure they'd remember the Sino-Japanese wars. There's intense bad-blood there (as well as Japan itself being racist, but that's another fish to fry).

To compound Japanese issues though, they got a rapidly aging population and too few children. Their population is rapidly shrinking and they can't possibly hold the youth base to keep competitive. I might see them as being one of a few to fully embrace 3d printing technology to keep an economy going. But I can't see them going anywhere but staying relevant to that and electronics. They're not a nation to really develop anything new, just retool things in creative ways.