"As for Japan building up its own defense capability, Ishihara said the United States is the country most opposed to such a move, while China is next in opposition."

I want to know which American politican is opposed to Japan building up it's own defense capability. I suspect that there is anyone truth to this statement, it's bureaucrats who are expressing this opposition. And I think if this is the case we should fire these bureaucrats.

I believe that Japan and Europe should doing much more in regards to training and building their own defense capability. The Cold war is over. The world has had around hundred various armed conflicts occuring globally for decades.
{actually their appears to be steep decline since the end of cold war:
http://members.aol.com/cspmgm/conflict.htm
Though "around hundred over the recent decades" is somewhat accurate, dozens yearly in the last decade would be a more current assessment.}

It seems to me that Japan should have a strong blue ocean navy- I don't think it needs 12 aircraft carriers like the US, but 4 or 5 doesn't seem that unreasonable. And Europe also needs to improve on it's logistic capablity so it's not so dependent the US.