As Brad Glosserman observes, Japanese security policymakers are embracing a more assertive defense posture in light of China’s ongoing military modernization. Not surprisingly, this hasn’t pleased Beijing. But it strikes me as an overwhelmingly salutary development, and a sign that Japan understands that it will have to share more of the burden of providing security in the western Pacific as the United States goes through a period of fiscal and strategic consolidation in the post-post-9/11 era.