It sure is. It's been running expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, piling up big trade/current account surpluses with the US, and generally telling the US neolibs to take a long walk off a short pier.
> Oil?
Oil isn't a US monopoly. Plenty of energy in the Russian Far North.
> Trade?
East Asia trades more with itself than with the US or EU.
> Reliance on US military protection?
Protection against who? Japan isn't going to lift a finger against any other East Asian nation. China tried to muscle Vietnam back in 1979 -- a nation one-tenth its size -- and was thoroughly trounced. North Korea is worried mostly about US military provocation.
-- DRR