Japan flexes its military muscles with US support

Yamamoto said the political constraints on Japan's military posture have eased.

"Collective security used to be seen as unconstitutional. But it seems the Japanese government believes it need only reinterpret -- not change -- the constitution to justify its policy shifts."

Two areas have long been taboo -- the development of nuclear weapons and the acquisition of aircraft carriers or other means of projecting power overseas.

The nuclear ban, driven by memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remains firm.

But the Defense Agency announced plans in 2001 to buy a 13,000-tonne destroyer with a flight deck for anti-submarine helicopter operations. Opponents called it a mini-aircraft carrier.

The day when Japan refuels US F-15s, meanwhile, may not be far away. In two years, Japan's first tanker, a Boeing 767, will be delivered to a military airfield in the central Japanese city of Nagoya.