Hatoyama Seeks ‘Yukio-Barack’ Rapport as He Plans to Woo China
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By John Brinsley
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- When Yukio Hatoyama travels to the U.S. this month as Japan’s new prime minister, he’ll have a chance to tell President Barack Obama just what he envisages in calling for a “more equal alliance.”
Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide election two days ago, ousting a government that had held sway for half a century and signed an agreement in 1960 to host U.S. soldiers on Japanese soil to provide for the country’s security.
The DPJ’s platform proposed revising an accord stipulating how the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan are treated, and developing an “autonomous” foreign policy that is still rooted in the U.S. alliance. Hatoyama has called for closer ties in Asia, especially with China, as that country develops a military capability in line with its economic expansion.
“The DPJ wants to have good relations with China and they want to have very good relations with the United States,” Gerald Curtis, a professor of Japanese politics at Columbia University in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The Hatoyama government will not do things that are going to provoke major controversy with the United States.”
Hatoyama, 62, is set to be sworn in as prime minister in time to represent Japan at this month’s Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh and the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Obama, 48 will attend both meetings, giving him a chance to meet Hatoyama.
DPJ officials say they would welcome the kind of first-name relationship former premier Junichiro Koizumi enjoyed with President George W. Bush.
First Names
“The issue for us now is whether Hatoyama can establish a ‘Yukio-Barack’ relationship,” DPJ upper-house legislator Kan Suzuki said in an Aug. 26 interview. “Our biggest policy challenge is diplomacy. As an opposition party, we had a complete lack of information.”
As his party’s election landslide unfolded, Hatoyama praised Obama for having “steered U.S. diplomacy toward dialogue.”
“We must create a country with the trust of the international community,” Hatoyama said at a press conference early yesterday morning. “There should be many roles that Japan can fulfill between the U.S. and a rising China.”
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly described the U.S.- Japan partnership as “key to pursuing peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.” In an Aug. 30 statement, he said the U.S. “will work closely with the new Japanese government” on issues including curbing North Korea’s nuclear program, combating climate change and “bringing stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
U.S. Comment
The U.S. isn’t concerned that Japan may seek stronger ties with China and other Asian powers, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday.
“We believe that we’ve always had a strong relationship and that relationship will continue, regardless of what Japanese government is in power,” Gibbs said.
While in opposition, Hatoyama’s party resisted Japan’s limited role in providing naval refueling services to support the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. DPJ leaders are also seeking to reduce the estimated $10.3 billion cost of transferring 8,000 Marines from Japan’s southern island of Okinawa to Guam by 2014.
Yesterday, Kelly praised Japan’s refueling role while telling reporters that “it’s up to each country to determine how they can best contribute” to stabilizing Afghanistan. He said the U.S. “has no intention” of renegotiating the Guam agreement.
Marine Sentenced
Japanese citizens, especially in Okinawa, favor changing the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces agreement that gives American servicemen protection from legal prosecution in Japan. A U.S. Marine was sentenced by a U.S. military court to four years in prison in May 2008 for sexual abuse of a 14-year-old Okinawan girl but cleared of rape charges in the latest of a series of such incidents.
The DPJ seeks to revise the agreement, a legacy of the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II, which by the time it ended was twice as long as the war between the two countries.
“We want to move away from U.S. dependency to a more equal alliance,” Hatoyama said in a February interview, before he became head of the party. “We’ve followed the U.S. subserviently in the past.”
Foreign Policy
Foreign policy got little attention during the campaign, with Hatoyama barely mentioning issues such as North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests. Japan participates in stalled six- party talks designed to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, a forum the communist regime has been trying to circumvent by seeking direct talks with the U.S.
The Obama administration, anticipating an LDP defeat as Prime Minister Taro Aso’s approval ratings plummeted, requested a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior DPJ officials, including Hatoyama, when she visited Tokyo in February.
The new Japanese government may put foreign policy aside temporarily as it works to revive the economy, said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Still, the U.S. military should be paying attention to the DPJ’s desire to reduce U.S. forces in Okinawa and its pledge to end Afghan refueling missions, she said.
“They have a tremendous agenda,” Smith said, citing promises on domestic economic stimulus plans. “It’s not quite clear to me where they’ll start.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Brinsley in Tokyo at [email protected]
Last Updated: August 31, 2009 19:01 EDT
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By John Brinsley
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- When Yukio Hatoyama travels to the U.S. this month as Japan’s new prime minister, he’ll have a chance to tell President Barack Obama just what he envisages in calling for a “more equal alliance.”
Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide election two days ago, ousting a government that had held sway for half a century and signed an agreement in 1960 to host U.S. soldiers on Japanese soil to provide for the country’s security.
The DPJ’s platform proposed revising an accord stipulating how the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan are treated, and developing an “autonomous” foreign policy that is still rooted in the U.S. alliance. Hatoyama has called for closer ties in Asia, especially with China, as that country develops a military capability in line with its economic expansion.
“The DPJ wants to have good relations with China and they want to have very good relations with the United States,” Gerald Curtis, a professor of Japanese politics at Columbia University in New York, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “The Hatoyama government will not do things that are going to provoke major controversy with the United States.”
Hatoyama, 62, is set to be sworn in as prime minister in time to represent Japan at this month’s Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh and the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Obama, 48 will attend both meetings, giving him a chance to meet Hatoyama.
DPJ officials say they would welcome the kind of first-name relationship former premier Junichiro Koizumi enjoyed with President George W. Bush.
First Names
“The issue for us now is whether Hatoyama can establish a ‘Yukio-Barack’ relationship,” DPJ upper-house legislator Kan Suzuki said in an Aug. 26 interview. “Our biggest policy challenge is diplomacy. As an opposition party, we had a complete lack of information.”
As his party’s election landslide unfolded, Hatoyama praised Obama for having “steered U.S. diplomacy toward dialogue.”
“We must create a country with the trust of the international community,” Hatoyama said at a press conference early yesterday morning. “There should be many roles that Japan can fulfill between the U.S. and a rising China.”
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly described the U.S.- Japan partnership as “key to pursuing peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.” In an Aug. 30 statement, he said the U.S. “will work closely with the new Japanese government” on issues including curbing North Korea’s nuclear program, combating climate change and “bringing stability to Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
U.S. Comment
The U.S. isn’t concerned that Japan may seek stronger ties with China and other Asian powers, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday.
“We believe that we’ve always had a strong relationship and that relationship will continue, regardless of what Japanese government is in power,” Gibbs said.
While in opposition, Hatoyama’s party resisted Japan’s limited role in providing naval refueling services to support the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan. DPJ leaders are also seeking to reduce the estimated $10.3 billion cost of transferring 8,000 Marines from Japan’s southern island of Okinawa to Guam by 2014.
Yesterday, Kelly praised Japan’s refueling role while telling reporters that “it’s up to each country to determine how they can best contribute” to stabilizing Afghanistan. He said the U.S. “has no intention” of renegotiating the Guam agreement.
Marine Sentenced
Japanese citizens, especially in Okinawa, favor changing the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces agreement that gives American servicemen protection from legal prosecution in Japan. A U.S. Marine was sentenced by a U.S. military court to four years in prison in May 2008 for sexual abuse of a 14-year-old Okinawan girl but cleared of rape charges in the latest of a series of such incidents.
The DPJ seeks to revise the agreement, a legacy of the U.S. occupation of Japan after World War II, which by the time it ended was twice as long as the war between the two countries.
“We want to move away from U.S. dependency to a more equal alliance,” Hatoyama said in a February interview, before he became head of the party. “We’ve followed the U.S. subserviently in the past.”
Foreign Policy
Foreign policy got little attention during the campaign, with Hatoyama barely mentioning issues such as North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests. Japan participates in stalled six- party talks designed to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear program, a forum the communist regime has been trying to circumvent by seeking direct talks with the U.S.
The Obama administration, anticipating an LDP defeat as Prime Minister Taro Aso’s approval ratings plummeted, requested a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and senior DPJ officials, including Hatoyama, when she visited Tokyo in February.
The new Japanese government may put foreign policy aside temporarily as it works to revive the economy, said Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
Still, the U.S. military should be paying attention to the DPJ’s desire to reduce U.S. forces in Okinawa and its pledge to end Afghan refueling missions, she said.
“They have a tremendous agenda,” Smith said, citing promises on domestic economic stimulus plans. “It’s not quite clear to me where they’ll start.”
To contact the reporter on this story: John Brinsley in Tokyo at [email protected]
Last Updated: August 31, 2009 19:01 EDT
