FOCUS: Obama praises bilateral ties, but Hatoyama taking risk over U.S. base

TOKYO, Nov. 14 Kyodo -
Although U.S. President Barack Obama stressed during his two-day visit to Japan
what an important ally Japan is for his country, Tokyo cannot afford to take
the alliance for granted, especially given uncertainty over the relocation of a
U.S. military base in Okinawa Prefecture and the growing strength of China.
''I began my trip here in Tokyo because the alliance between the United States
and Japan is a foundation for security and prosperity, not just for the two
countries but for the Asia Pacific region,'' Obama said Friday at a joint press
conference with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama after their 90-minute talks.
He reiterated Saturday that the alliance will remain strong, saying in a key
foreign policy speech, also in Tokyo, ''Our commitment to Japan's security and
to Asian security is unshakable.''
Despite such soothing words, however, Obama cut back his stay in Japan to 23
hours and has already left for Singapore, the next destination on his Asian
tour, which will also lead him to China, where he is expected to stay for three
days from Sunday.
Political analysts both in Japan and the United States, who have followed
developments in bilateral relations since the launch of the Hatoyama government
in mid-September, have become even more concerned about the alliance due to a
simmering row over a U.S. military base.
In Friday's summit, Hatoyama and Obama agreed to deepen their ties through
cooperation on such global issues as climate change and nuclear disarmament,
bringing their closeness to the fore, despite the tension over the relocation
of a U.S. Marines base in Okinawa.
But Koji Murata, professor in politics at Doshisha University in Kyoto, said,
''I doubt that Japan, which has failed to make a decision on this specific
bilateral issue, can exercise its influence on such superpowers as the United
States and China on matters of global concern.''
Looking at Hatoyama's handling of foreign policy over the past two months, he
said, ''I don't see any clues as to how Japan would deal with security in the
whole of East Asia and what defense policy Japan is pursuing.''
The professor argued that Hatoyama's ruling Democratic Party of Japan tends to
simply say ''No'' to any foreign or economic policy pursued by the previous
Liberal Democratic Party-led government, even when they have no compelling
reasons to do so.
''That approach is jeopardizing the relationship with the United States,''
Murata said.
James Schoff, associate director of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Institute for
Foreign Policy Analysis in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also said, ''I am a little
bit concerned (about bilateral ties),'' adding Japan should move quickly
forward with the implementation of the U.S. base agreement.
He was referring to the 2006 agreement between Tokyo and Washington to relocate
the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa, to Nago,
another Okinawa city.
The Hatoyama government has sought to review the agreement and proposed the
Futemma facility should be moved off Okinawa to alleviate the burden on local
people, opening a rift between the two countries.
Schoff said the two countries should sit down and talk more about ''the actual
question on what they want in the alliance,'' using next year's 50th
anniversary of the revision of the Japan-U.S. security treaty.
The DPJ is generally praised for its efforts to seek transparency and
accountability on matters that were often decided behind closed doors under the
LDP government, but is criticized for its penchant for delaying decisions on
difficult issues.
It is questionable how long the Obama administration can stay patient on the
Futemma issue as it is already dogged by various other problems including a
swelling deficit, a high unemployment rate, and the war in Afghanistan.
Hatoyama had already made it clear, even before Obama's visit to Japan, that
his government would not come up with any decision on the Futemma issue before
the visit but would wait to assess the results of the mayoral election in Nago
in January.
But Schoff criticized Hatoyama for his attempt to use the election as a
deciding factor.
''Waiting for a local election is not going to be the right solution,'' he
said. ''The decision on Japan's security policy is not a local referendum.
Leaving it to a local election is not leadership.''
''The longer they wait, the more likely the deal will fall through,'' he said,
adding that the DPJ government would have to pay a high political price over
the consequences of whatever decision it makes on the relocation.
With the Hatoyama government having raised hopes among Okinawa residents with
its proposal to transfer the Futemma base outside the prefecture, its giving up
of the plan will trigger a backlash and eventually damage its popularity.
Concerns are also growing among political analysts in Japan as U.S. attention
is turning to China, whose military power and influence is rapidly increasing
and is set to change the entire power structure in the East Asian region and
beyond.
But the U.S. government does not want to sour its relationship with the
DPJ-government either, in view of the fact that the 11-year-old party won as
many as 308 seats in the 480-member House of Representatives in the August
election and will highly likely wield power in Japan, which is still the
world's second-largest economy, for the next four years at least.
==Kyodo