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It is all three. Well mostly the first two. The government has already tried creating beneficial economic conditions for people that have kids. It's not working. I was being cheeky about taxing the internet by the minute, but to be frank, society (Not just Japan but the whole of the developed world) is going to have to start having hard conversations about addiction to technology, because I do think it is a big problem. I mean, you can look at my post count and see that I like dicking around on computers, but I would be lying if I said that was ultimately healthy. We live in a time where a person can feasibly do everything from home  (work, entertainment, shopping, even base level socializing with others online), except make truly meaningful and intimate relationships. Computer assisted subsistence is so convenient, that it's ultimately destroying us. I don't really know how you fix that. Seeing the older kids of Gen Z coming of age, and seeing how seriously they take their internet identity now, having grown up with it from birth, it honestly scares me.

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It won't happen, not to any significant degree anyway. The first reason is their own constitution, that General MacArthur handed them. They could re-draft it, but it's a huge undertaking.

Everyone but the Norks giving China nervous side-eye isn't enough to completely overcome the institutionalized base hatred most all of Asia feels towards Japan. And because of that, they won't accept Japan re-militarizing significantly past their current level. Most of Asia isn't interested in a significantly more militarized Japan, except as a talking-point against Chinese attempts at regional hegemony. And in part, the feelings towards Japan are exacerbated by the unique situation of the US occupation WWII. We gave them the kid-glove treatment in some ways, fearing they'd all go banzi to the last woman and child wielding sharp broomsticks if we pushed them too hard on owning up to what they did. And while nobody's going to make a human wave assault with sticks over it today, all that's still in play with certain Japanese/Asian cultural aspects in terms of honor and saving-face. And younger generations that just see WWII as a generic "war" over economics and whatever, without the darker aspects of "We've got a divine right to rule all this other sub-human filth." that motivated Imperial Japan from the 1930's to 1945, to add some context.

So Japan didn't get their "noses rubbed in it" in the way the Allies did with Germany. And the Germans even did more of it all on their own. (Arguably, Germany has gone too far in the other direction in some ways.) And that's assuming an actual meaningful full-blown apology and acknowledgement of Imperial Japanese WWII atrocities would actually help with other Asian countries supporting increased Japanese militarization. Instead, over the decades, Japan has issued a series of wishy-washy "statements of regret", but not outright apologies because of all that. And in practical terms of Japanese realpolitik, the Japanese Parliamentary system and certain hard-line political parties/factions would immediately cause a big internal backlash, making such apologies impossible.

And if all that could be ignored, Japan's demographic decline and economy can only support so much. They don't have America's largest military asset, the US Dollar, and it's ability to spread across the globe as the #1 world reserve currency and the Petrodollar, which enables the Fed Reserve to print dollars incessantly, and (usually) avoid intolerable inflation, and the Congressional deficit spending on a huge defense spending program. Japan just can't do it, even if they had the manpower, and the regional political or cultural realties needed to run a significantly bigger war machine.

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Population decline isn't a problem for society.  It's a problem for government funding and government liabilities.

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That's like trying to solve your village's shortage of drinking water by having everyone piss in the town well.

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Absolutly, none of the Asian nations are bound to forget Japanese aggression in 1937 to 1942 and the instigation of the Asia-Pacific War, they were brutal. You are also spot on that they got off a lot less than their Axis counterparts in Europe. I am sure they are going to count on relying on the USA to protect them militarily.

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It would be wonderful if the Japanese could address their millennia worth of severe psychological baggage. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that work is not even going to begin until after their society completely collapses.

“Work harder you miserable slackers!”