Japan, US talk shared interests

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-04 10:53

Japan, US talk shared interests

John V. Roos (right), US ambassador to Japan, reacts as he is shown a Stanford University football helmet by Yukio Hatoyama, leader of Japan's main opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan, prior to their talks at the party headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. [Agencies]

TOKYO: Japan's new leader and Washington's envoy bonded over a football helmet yesterday as they sought to allay concern about their alliance after an election win by Yukio Hatoyama's party, which has pledged a more independent diplomatic course.

The prospect of a Democratic Party administration in Japan, ruled for most of the past half-century by conservatives who put the US partnership at the core of their security stance, has raised worries in Washington about a tilt away from the alliance.

Most analysts say no huge shift is in store after Hatoyama takes up the premiership on Sept 16, but investors are also concerned about a possible rocky road ahead.

Eager to soothe concerns, Japan's next leader and the US envoy to Tokyo stressed shared interests yesterday - including memories of college days.

"We talked about the very deep relationship between the United States and Japan," US Ambassador John Roos said after a meeting that began with a chat about their common alma mater, Stanford University, and American football while Hatoyama displayed a red and white helmet inscribed with an "S".

"We spent a lot of time talking about how to enhance and further deepen that relationship across a broad range of issues, not only strategic issues, but scientific issues, cultural matters ... because the two countries have shared values and shared interests," Roos told reporters.

"We have lot of work to do but we are going to do it together," added Roos, a lawyer and major donor to President Barack Obama's campaign, who assumed the post last month.

The meeting followed an early morning phone conversation in which Hatoyama sought to reassure Obama that the relationship would stay central to Tokyo's diplomacy.

"I told him we think the US-Japan alliance is the foundation (of Japanese diplomacy) and I would like to build US-Japan relations with eyes on the future," Hatoyama said.

More equal partnership

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) pledged in its campaign platform to create a more equal partnership with Washington while forging warmer ties with Asian neighbors such as China.

The US-educated Hatoyama also raised eyebrows in Washington with a recent essay, published in English, in which he attacked the "unrestrained market fundamentalism" of US-led globalization. He has since sought to play down those comments.

"It was for domestic consumption and had its purpose in the campaign context, but putting it out in English for an American audience was unwise," said Koichi Nakano, a professor at Tokyo's Sophia University.

US officials including Roos himself, however, have raised eyebrows in Tokyo by forcefully reiterating Washington's position that deals on US forces in Japan were not up for renegotiation.

"Obama needs to send a message to the whole administration to bite their tongues or they will provoke a fight," said Columbia University professor Gerry Curtis.

"The internal politics of the DPJ and its coalition don't allow them to just walk away from his platform a few days after the election. But give them a few months and there will be ways to deal with these issues."

The Democrats, themselves a mix of former members of the Liberal Democratic Party that ruled for decades, ex-socialists and younger conservatives, are trying to form a coalition with two tiny parties, including the leftist Social Democrats, whose support is needed in parliament's upper house.

The new ruling party has said it wants to re-examine an agreement governing US military forces in Japan and a deal on rejigging US troops under which about 8,000 Marines would leave for the US territory of Guam and a Marine air base be shifted to a less populated part of the southern island of Okinawa.

Hatoyama has also said he plans to end a naval mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan when a legal mandate expires in January.

Few analysts expect a Democratic Party government to make big changes in the alliance, given Japan's reliance on the US nuclear umbrella to protect it from such regional threats.

But Washington would do well to avoid a strident tone in talks with Japan's government-in-waiting, some analysts said.

"Japan is so heavily reliant on the United States that radical change is not going to happen," Nakano said.

"But American senior officials taking such a haughty stance after the Japanese people have spoken in favor of a change of government is not diplomatically very sound.

"They have to be careful. They don't want a backlash."

Reuters