> "given how people aren't fretting about Japan."

They aren't fretting about Japan anymore. But in the 1980s there was an anti-japan screed equivalent for just about anything you read today about China.

With regards to economics anyway.

There is a fun Michael Crichton book (and a subsequent movie) that captures the "fretting" quite well IMHO. It's called Rising Sun.

Somewhere in the book boxes I have an autographed copy of that book which he sent me as lagniappe along with a check as payment for a little Mac shareware program I had then.

Don't forget about the 80's flick, Gung Ho, where a Japanese Company takes over an American Car plant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gung_Ho_(film)

What is interesting to me is how much those two countries are themselves in debt. Everyone knows about Japan but China has quite a mess to deal with too: http://tinyurl.com/3upnavb

Please don't use URL shorteners. It is considered bad form on HN where we don't have a 140 character limit. We want to know where we are going before we go.

karma-whoring: http://www.economist.com/node/18775343

Perhaps because Japan is an ally. Even if that were to change and the Japanese government became less aligned with US politically, Japan would still not be a threat militarily.