Economically, Japan is a giant, albeit a staggering one. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party just secured full control of both houses of Japan's  parliament. Abe's "three-arrow"  reform program has injected new life in Japan's formerly stagnant $5 trillion economy industry and driven down the over-valued yen.

But militarily, Japan remains a midget.   Its so-called Self-Defense Forces were designed to stop a Soviet amphibious invasion of the northern islands.  Japan's US-written pacifist constitution prohibits all offensive military operations or exports of arms and military equipment.