One more thing I should point out:
Japanforum.com Site Info
Country Percent of Site Traffic
China 51.6%
Pakistan 8.4%
India 8.3%
Bangladesh 6.6%
Japan 5.4%
United States 4.6%
United Kingdom 2.5%
Philippines 2.4%
Indonesia 1.4%
Vietnam 0.5%
Now this would not be a popular subject with people of certain countries and there will be attempts to ridicule this idea for obvious reasons. But I think this is a vital issue for Japan. While keeping good relations with China may reduce the alienation and have a temporary feel good element, I believe Japan has to look for alternate solutions to face the threat in the long term which cannot be solved with just good relations, unless it wants to become a vassal state of the middle kingdom like the old days. Power has to be balanced with power. When USA goes down, it will no longer be able to provide this balance for Japan and many of its other allies.