Nuke Carrier to Japan, and the "Jiei-gun"

Japan has reversed a decades old decision not to allow US nuclear vessels in its home waters:

Japan is to allow a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to be stationed in its waters for the first time.
The vessel will replace the USS Kitty Hawk, the US Navy's oldest active ship, when it is decommissioned in 2008.
Although US troops have been based in Japan since the end of World War II, public opinion there has long been wary of a nuclear presence.

In a related story, Japanese lawmakers are proposing to revise its Constitution for a more agressive military role:

Japan should possess a military not just to defend itself, a role to which it has been restricted for nearly 60 years, but to play a greater role in global security, the main ruling party said on Friday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party proposed revising the country's pacifist constitution, which has not been changed since it was written by U.S. Occupation authorities just after World War Two.

Under the LDP proposal, the 240,000 member Self-Defence Force (Jiei-tai) would be renamed "Jiei-gun". The phrase translates as the same in English, but the word "gun" makes clear it is a military force.

I think this is inevitable. What other economic superpower has sat on its laurels and allowed someone else to defend it? We sat behind the safety of the Royal Navy for most of the 19th Century, but when our time came...