Very very stupid thing to say to the Japanese. My guess is they have just shifted Japans policy greatly. There will be budget changes, the military will get all it wants.
The Japanese are not cowards, but are very honorable men. Cowards are weakened by threats, but Honorable Men get resolve.
Once upon a time, I worked with / for some Japanese.<.br> While the ones I have worked with are Westernized to some extent, they are still Orientals 'at heart'.
Corollaries to this are:
a) they will have a greater understanding of NK than we do
b) as stated, they have a deep sense of honor and identity.
They also are the only people to have been on the
receiving end of nukes. They will not let it happen again!
They're already debating some form of change to their defense system in Japan. One legislator collapsed at the podium in the midst of a speech...high blood pressure. They're taking NK's threat very seriously.