TheMartin comments

Keeping them in the corner will only end badly for everyone. Time to assume the senior role and set a diplomatic example. They are reacting most naturally for their position, which is an extremely disadvantageous one. That's what the nukes are for, and I wouldn't waste any more time trying to force them to give them up.

People and countries who are smart avoid foreign conflicts and domestic entanglements that do not truly benefit them in the long run. If Japan's leadership and voters are smart, they will go ahead with expanding conventional military forces, but will couple that with an expansion of their chemical weapons stockpile, and the creation of a large nuclear deterrent capability. Russia, China and North Korea have hypersonic nuclear missiles. Anyone at odds with them is not in any kind of advantageous military position without having the same, or something close to the equivalence in power.

What can he do? He has the western-induced mindset that if you make the same demands and empty threats for long enough, that you will get your way. Even with a country as heavily-armed as North Korea. If you want to reach them, give up on the notion that they will bend to your will. Cause clearly that's not going to happen.

The difference between China and America is that China doesn't pretend to have the aforementioned 'freedoms', while in America you're told you are free but are spied on, suppressed, and bombarded constantly with shady propaganda that's meant to make you happy that your overlords are treating you like dirt, or else so miserable that you become a 'worthless' drug addict. And all the while they have the audacity to think they represent all that's good and right with the world, even presuming to preach their sex-obsessed version of God and Jesus. So don't be deceived any longer: The so-called multilateral world order, which is a cover for Anglo-American hegemony, is not long for this age. Because of its own greed and short-sightedness, and penchant for total & oppressive hypocrisy.