Japan's Liberal Democratic Party leader Shinzo Abe is evidently keen to curry favor with the United States ahead of the Dec 16 general election, which may see him become the nation's next prime minister.

A visit to the US and a summit with President Barack Obama in mid-January at the earliest is on Abe's mind should his party win the polls.

Abe's proposal has already been floated to the White House, Kyodo News reported.

As soon as he succeeded Junichiro Koizumi in 2007, he chose China as the destination of his first overseas diplomatic trip. That visit was regarded as "extraordinary" and as "melting the ice" between the two countries after his predecessor's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class-A World War II war criminals, most notably wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, took bilateral relations into the deep freeze.

"Remember six years ago? I dramatically changed the Japan-China relationship," Abe said in an interview with TBS TV after he was re-elected LDP president on Sept 26.

The US is usually the first destination for Japanese prime ministers. Abe's choice of the US, in some sense, is a return to normal for Japan's diplomacy, the linchpin of which is the Japan-US alliance.

Asked about the diplomatic stance he would take if he becomes prime minister again, Abe stressed that Japan first needs to strengthen its alliance with the US to keep China and South Korea in check.

In its 2009 election manifesto, the Democratic Party of Japan was committed to building an "equal relationship" with the US. This generated an undercurrent of apprehension, particularly among US conservatives, because the DPJ wanted Tokyo's foreign policy to focus on Asia.

Yukio Hatayama, Japan's first DPJ prime minister, challenged US dominance in the military alliance between the two countries. He insisted on renegotiating the 2006 agreement to relocate US Marines from the crowded Futenma base in southern Okinawa. The issue sent the Japan-US relationship into a tailspin.

The US has done nothing to change the situation except exert constant pressure on Japan to concede, even to the point of assisting in the removal of the Hatoyama administration.

The other two prime ministers from the DPJ - Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda - were busy with clearing up the messy situation left by Hatoyama and reconfiguring Japan-US relations.

Kan pledged to restore Tokyo's relationship with Washington, saying that the Japan-US security alliance was the "cornerstone" of his administration.

Noda heartened the Obama administration after taking office in 2011 when he expressed interest in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an emerging US-led free trade deal across the Pacific Rim. His administration has been looking at new ways to cooperate in defense with the US, hoping to show that the alliance is back on track after a rocky few years.

"It is important to recognize afresh each other's role as allies in the changing global and Asian landscape and to make a new Japan-US relationship a starting point to cope with challenges together," Kenichiro Sasae, Japan's new ambassador to the US, said shortly after arriving in Washington in October.

Now, LDP leader Abe is not hesitant about speaking his mind on rebuilding the Japan-US alliance.

An early visit to the US may also be intended to send a message to China.

On Dec 4, the US Senate passed a defense bill that said that the US-Japan security treaty covers the Diaoyu Islands.

Japan and the US are scheduled to deliberate this month on revising their defense cooperation guidelines, which stipulate methods of cooperation between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the US military during contingencies.

The document, which was written in 1978, was drastically revised in 1997 on the assumption of contingencies on the Korean Peninsula.

"But the East Asian situation is not limited to the Korean Peninsula and there is also the issue of China going to the ocean," Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto said in Tokyo on Nov 9.

While playing up to the US, the LDP is talking tough on confronting Japan's neighbors, illustrated by its proposal to study the feasibility of stationing government officials on the Diaoyu Islands on a regular basis.

caihong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/11/2012 page11)