Japan is like a cat after WWII, but many Asian countries, especially its neighbors, are afraid that it will became a tiger again. If you ask a Korean which country he hates most and which country's armed forces threaten his country most. He has only one answer, not China, not North Korea, not Russia.
Actually the ranking on the Global Firepower website is not correct:
http://www.globalfirepower.com/After the joint military exercise of China and Russia (Peace Mission 2005), guess what Russia said... "China navy is at the level of 1950". The red panda (haha, I think Russia is a red polar bear, then China should be a red panda) still speaks loud in front of the Japan and Japan is still like a cat. Other than Russia, in Asia the only country whose armed forces might be stronger than Japan is South Korea. Every time when South Korea purchases weapons, they have a principle: equal to or better than Japan. Japan palned to purchase F-35, then South Korea wants F-35 too.
In the near future, Japan will change their Constitution and is allowed to sell their weapons to other countries. We may expect China and South Korea's reactions. I believe many countries will like the weapons made by Japan.
Korea is a tragedy country. It's surrounded by China, Russia, and Japan. However, Korea was poor and weak in history. When China was bored, China beat it. When Japan was unhappy, Japan invaded it. Koreans have been very inferior for thousands of years and now become very rude to Japan (of course they dare not be rude to the red panda).
When the Great Kanto Earthquake struck Japan in 1923, the rumor said Koreans set fire to burn Japanese houses, then Japanese arrested all Koreans in Japan and killed them all (6,000 in total). The Great Kanto Earthquake also caused Japan to start the WWII in Asia. Actually nowadays Japanese and Koreans still dislike each other. Japanese think Korea government strategically let Koreans go to Japan and bring many society problems. I don't want to translate the following list, it shows one of the many reasons why Japanese now still hate Koreans. They even think Koreans are shame of Asia.
■ 強姦、殺人などの凶悪犯は韓国・朝鮮人 ■
窃盗 1位 中国人 2位 韓国・朝鮮人
殺人 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
放火 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
強姦 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
暴行 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
傷害 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
脅迫 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
恐喝 1位 韓国・朝鮮人 2位 中国人
平成16年度の刑法犯の外国人検挙数
Why I think Japanese have thanked Taiwanese too much? I am moved by those appreciation videos, but they only need to say "thank you", it's enough. However, now more and more Japanese's replies imply racism. Of course I know they support Taiwanese, but they don't need to say anything involving racism. Few of them now treat Taiwanese as "noble people" who should be their family, while Korea and China people are... Time is progress, hope them not to go backward.
Take a look at what they digged. This video (Japan and Taiwan walked together for 50 years) even involved militarism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29bdvHsQV9kIt was uploaded in 2009, but is linked by other articles recently. Do you see soldiers, planes, and warships? They were Taiwanese. In WWII, some planes were produced and some kamikaze pilots were trained in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese soldiers' names are enshrined in Yasukuni Shrine, but this is another story.
I understand why young Japanese are crazy for Taiwan now (they feel like they suddenly found a lost brother), but say "thank you" is enough. One of them even said native Taiwanese's DNA is very similar to Japanese, ridiculous!! Some asked more Taiwanese artists/idols to go to Japan, impractical!! (they may succeed more easily if going to China and in fact it's more and more Japanese artists/idols come to Taiwan entertainment circles) Some said stories about what their grandparents told them how friendly Taiwanese are, OK it's true. (Actually there were 400 thousand Japanese sent back to Japan after WWII, they were born, educated, lived, or worked here. And I actually know many old Japanese told their families that they wanted to go back to Taiwan or see their Taiwanese friends/classmates when they're dying.)
Finally, this is a Taiwanese song created in about 1930:
望春風 by 一青窈:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6PjhYr6-cEthe singer is half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese, but her Taiwanese is really... worse. (Taiwanese is a dialect, not Mandarin)