First of all Japan has about the same population size as the US, I think it fits between the US and Germany. China and India on the other hand have MUCH bigger populations. And all of their people want to be middle class.
The Asian tigers went through a financial crisis (who hasn't) and I think they have already largely recovered. So while any one of them is small, Vietnam is only about 80 million people, together they are a very significant economic region. And people in all of them want to own cars, eat stake, be just like the first worlders.
I agree, the desire for India and Chinese to bolster the middle class is at the heart of the problems we will face in the next few years.
We balk at paying $4/gallon for gas, but the folks in the East who have no historical frame of reference like we do, may easily accept $8/gallon. (I hate saying we, since some Y!Hackers aren't from the US, you know what I mean...)
If this is true, then Eastern oil importers can bid much higher prices, pushing our prices higher.
I'm not very old, but I'm old enough to remember the way that Japan was going to own the whole world soon, back in the late 80s (just before Japan went stagnant). I also remember the unstoppable rise of the "Asian Tiger economies" back in the mid-90s, just before the Asian currency crisis. I've stopped worrying about these sorts of things, now.