I may be unacceptably too selfish and arrogant as Japanese, but I rather say that the reason why Japan is always criticized and feared is that Japan was so strong to fight but defeated in the last world war, and it has been enjoying another new strength, which is economy.  It seems to me that people never think about how the environment of world itself has been changed before and during the war and what is the way to show the strongness in the current world.  It used to be the military and colonization power that a country shows its power to the world.  Not only Japan but also other western powers colonized weaker countries in Asia, Africa or South America and did the same thing to the local people.  But now it is economic power.

However, we could say there is one country that is still conducting military power.  It is the United States.  The US deploys its military in other countries even though it is under the mutual agreement and uses its military power to settle the issues or shut out the uprising against the US.  Most of the countries always need to pay their respect to the US and obtain its approval before they make any decisions and take any actions.