NOPE, though i agree with some of your comments, i have to diagree with Japan. Nippon is a mature country/power as well. Its not a lesser country at all, in fact its still more advanced than even China technologically/development wise overall. And you have to know that the average Japanese is still way way way more productive than the average Chinese(since despite Japan being almost 10 times less populated than China and having a far smaller landmass/having virtually no natural resources/based on a techtonic natural disater prone landscape, its still just over 50% china's economy, that in itself is a huge achievement)
. Though this is not such a bad news for China, since it means itstill has a large room for growth.
So you cant put Japan in same league like othercsmaller countries, since Japan is not a small country(far from it), and they are not Naive as well. If they were naive they wont be trading with China more than any country on planet earth bar the U.S, and they wont be one of the largest investors in China despite all the rivalry/disputes you have with each other(much more than anything India can have against China), unlike India and China who despite sharing a large border with each other and being over 1billion strong each, their trade is still tiny/insignificant when compared to other major players in the region/world. So despite all this Japanese corporations/multinationals still invest heavily in China and do huge business with China, Your trade is increasing each year not decreasing my man, so some japanese politicians might be making sensational statements against china to other smaller countries in the region but they are still realistic and make such claims just for political and geo strategic gains, they still carry on with business as usual. If Japan was fantasizing about democratic love as you said, they will not be investing anything in Choina and will be investing heavilly in 'democratic' countries like India, Bengladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mongolia, african countries, etc etc. So you got the coutnry wrong my man. Japanese are very smart/realistic people, if not for the fact that they lost the second world war, then they will be a power to be reckon with worldwide and will have been much more involve in world affairs/conflicts/issues/having an independent forein policy and be a power in their own right/sphrere of influence just like Germany. Reason why you think they are a small/lesser country, they are not.