For my part, as glad as I am that the US and Japan are working closely together, I regard the notion of serious Japanese rearmament with a concern born of having grown up in the '50s knowing surviors of the Bataan Death March and the other Pacific campaigns and of having read a good deal about Japan, its culture, and history.
Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it!
I am wary of Japanese as any others. Indeed, one of my main beef about Kim Jong-il is, in addition to his brutal dictatorship, to provide nice pretext for rearmament of Japan, by continuing his nuclear/missile blackmail. He may extend his regime for a few more years this way, but changes long-term geopolitical landscape of E. Asia irreversibly. I would shoot him one hundred times and may watch blood pouring out one hundred bullet holes, but I doubt that I would regret it.
Pat Buchanan made what I thought was interesting point in his column today,that China,who has asked Kim Jong Il repeatedly to not launch more missiles,may not have the clout the world believes it has.