The headline is such BS. Japan’s defense spending is stuck at 1% of GDP, where it’s been for the last few decades. Meanwhile, China’s is 2.5x that amount in dollar terms and 2x in % of GDP terms. And Chinese military pay is way lower. The Japanese need to wake the heck up and understand that Uncle Sugar won’t always be there to protect them.
Japan's not "wak[ing] the heck up" is precisely What the US-Japanese defense arrangement was supposed to prevent. A peaceful Japan is, we discovered in 1941, much preferable to a "Pacific" Japan.