I think quality of people (and health of the society) is more important than quantity of people when it comes to cold war type scenarios.
I'd take Japan over any nation below the equator for example.
I'd take Japan over any nation below the equator for example.
Also Japanese is not a race.
Nazi Germany believed in the supremacy of the aryan race, and your claim that an island state is superior to 50% of the world by area is about the same. It's also tone deaf, considering their past alliances and how hard they worked to distance themselves from that past.
There's much to like about Japanese culture, but please keep in mind that the same culture also gave birth to the Yakuza and whatever you want to call this: