That scholar must be churning in his grave. At the time of his 2004 demise, the GDP of his beloved motherland was $4.7 trillion (USD). China, on the other hand, stood at a meager $1.9 trillion. The Japanese had reason to be arrogant. But he must be blind not seeing what was coming. Back in the 1990s, I had predicted that within 20 years China would be 2x of Japan in economy and military spending.
Fast forward to 2015. Japan's GDP had shrunken to $4.1 trillion, while the Chinese empire looked down from a towering height of $10.9 trillion. The Japanese economy, built upon looting and plundering and the laundering of the same, had come to a screeching halt and then underwent unstoppable decline. The Japanese nation, unwilling to accept the fate of its eventual fall, is amending its American-imposed constitution, in preparation of a fresh round of aggressive war, which had historically brought home to the Japanese people the riches and treasures of their Asian neighbors. The Japanese armed forces are posturing to enter the South China sea, challenging China's claims of the Nine-dashed line, in a vain attempt to thwart the advance of the mighty People's Republic.