The Japanese leadership is still smarting over the steel tariffs and something that probably didn't get noticed much in the western press. The US DoD published a list of key allies in the war against terrorism and failed to put Japan on the list (even though Koizumi didn't complain that the bombing campaign screwed up Japanese aid and development efforts in Afghanistan, and Koizumi was among the first who offered complete support for Bush's war in every way constitutionally possible and then some).
We know the omission from the 'WAT honor list' was intentional, but I think the reason was revenge for the recent rape conviction of a US airman, which resulted in sentence of --I think, if I remember--just over 3 years. The US' own UCMJ has handed out more serious punishments with rapes that have occurred on US military bases (this one apparently took place on the hood of a car in town), but when Bush took power the military became more assertive about 'extraterritoriality' and didn't like the fuss the Japanese put up when the US military tried to wreck the investigation against the accused.
Most Japanese I talk to now have a better understanding that the Bush regime is really about --well, I call it this, they don't, but for want of a better term--strategic brinksmanship for guys with the same investment portfolio. The oil, gas, construction and military connections to the regime (many of them analogous to or continuous with the last time a Bush assumed power) are being discussed a lot now in the vernacular press.
Business-minded people are worrying about another oil shock, to which Japan is most vulnerable since it has no oil of its own. The Japanese are buying gold, but I'm happy with my Swiss francs.
The most visceral but verbal reaction I've heard was one student saying upon seeing scenes of mayhem, carnage and jackboots in Palestine: 'Israel acts just like the US doesn't it?' I felt like commenting, 'Well, no, you can see Israel is doing more than just dropping bombs' but I thought why clutter up a rather straight analysis?
Charles Jannuzi