Akihiro Suzuki does not think war will come, but if it does, he believes Japan will prevail.
"Of course, in general military terms China is more powerful," says the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly lawmaker. "But with the weapons and technology we have from America, we would be able to respond in a short-term, regional conflict."
Suzuki was among some 150 Japanese neonationalists who made the roughly 1,900 km trip from Tokyo to the remote Senkaku/Diaoyu islets last month in a flag-waving display of this national pride. When he returned to Tokyo, the city's governor, Shintaro Ishihara, called him "an idiot," before adding, " 'You should have planted a bigger flag,' " recalls Suzuki, laughing.