It wouldn’t surprise me after what I saw a Kure. The U.S. Navy holds regular joint exercises with them. Not sure about the army, but we even have shared base arrangements with the MSDF (navy) and ASDF (air).
A glance at the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) in the pacific theater WW2, is powerful evidence of what kind of Navy Japan, an island nation, can put to sea.
It doesn’t surprise me in the least what you saw at Kure. The destroyer I was on, by the way, back in the 60’s, visited Kure...as I remember several times.
In my opinion, assuming Japan doesn’t decide to return to their hegemonic Naval ways of years past, the US couldn’t have a stronger Naval power as ally.