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As preparations continue for a landmark U.S.-China summit meeting in California, many in Japan cant shake the nagging worry that President Barack Obama might be changing the way he views Washingtons Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy.
At the two-day meeting starting Friday, Mr. Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss at length most core issues between the two nations, while developing a personal rapport in a no-frills environment. That poses anxiety in Tokyo that the United States may start to gravitate toward an Asia policy focused more on encouraging China, and less on reassuring Japan.
A comparison of the treatment of the Chinese presidents visit to that of the Japanese leaders visit to the U.S. in February could project worries about a gap. For Mr. Xi, the White House prepared to accommodate his visit on short notice. The Chinese leader has also been given a full two days with President Obama for one-on-one discussions at a California retreat. Both sides shed formal protocol to make the shirtsleeves summit between the leaders more personal to dive right into issues. In contrast, Mr. Abe had to push back his whirlwind visit to Washington by one month due to President Obamas tight schedule. Even then, he was only given one meeting and a working lunch.
Shinzo Abe is the fifth Japanese prime minister that President Obama has met in his time in office. The reason he held a working lunch is because he doesnt know how much longer Mr. Abe will be around, said Japan specialist Gerald Curtis of Columbia University On the other hand, he knows Mr. Xi will be around much longer. Until Mr. Abe can prove hes going to be around longer than a year, meetings are less likely to get on a personal level.
Its far from clear if this weeks meeting will result in an exchange of warm, fuzzy feelings between the Chinese and American leaders. Still, the occasion serves as a reminder in Japan that its been a while since a Japanese leader had a personal heart-to-heart with the U.S. president; the most recent that comes to mind was when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the last prime minister to last more than two years in office visited President Bushs Crawford ranch and Graceland. That was more than five years ago.
While Japanese leaders may not have had the personal touch with the U.S. president in recent years, security cooperation between Japan and the U.S. is stronger than ever. The Sunnylands Estate, the location of the informal meeting, is only about an hours drive away from Pendleton, the military base where about 1,000 Japanese Self-Defense force troops will participate in a huge joint exercise with U.S. troops running from June 11 to June 26 to enhance amphibious response capability and island-recapturing techniques. The United States denies that there is any specific target, but Kyodo News reported that China has firmly protested the drill and requested for its cancellation through diplomatic channels. That story made it to the front page of the Asahi Shimbun, a leading daily.
Japans media has been gauging how the dispute over the islands in the East China Sea called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China might fit into the Obama-Xi talks among other key topics like cybersecurity and North Korea. In his China Watch column in the Sankei Shimbun, a conservative daily, Seki Hei wrote on Thursday that he worried Mr. Xi will point out that China has been demonstrating flexibility to gain understanding of Mr. Obama while painting Japan as the obstacle to resolving the dispute. Because Japan takes the position that a territorial dispute does not exist and refuses to shelve the issue, Mr. Xi can push the responsibility to the Japanese side by complaining to President Obama that the problem is Japan, not China.
Robert Dujarric at Temple Universitys Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies in Tokyo doesnt agree that China will be able to use that card. He says that while it is important for the leaders to talk, the summit wont amount to anything earth-shattering in the U.S.-China relationship due to too many problems on the structural level. The Japanese media is overreacting. Six months from now, no one will even remember the summit happened. While Japan has concerns that U.S.-Japan relations will seriously deteriorate and China will work closer with the US, Japanese officials do not share that worry in regards to this specific summit.
Vance Serchuk of the Canon Institute of International Studies also suggests that any uneasiness that does exist in Japan about Chinas influence could be used as a stimulus for breathing new life into the U.S.-Japan relationship. Tokyo is right to worry about the implications of the growing gap between Chinese and Japanese power, and the United States has an overwhelming interest in a Japan that gets off the sidelines and back on its feet economically, diplomatically and militarily, Mr. Serchuk wrote in a Washington Post column in April.
Japan Paces Outside Obama-Xi Summit - Japan Real Time - WSJ
At the two-day meeting starting Friday, Mr. Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss at length most core issues between the two nations, while developing a personal rapport in a no-frills environment. That poses anxiety in Tokyo that the United States may start to gravitate toward an Asia policy focused more on encouraging China, and less on reassuring Japan.
A comparison of the treatment of the Chinese presidents visit to that of the Japanese leaders visit to the U.S. in February could project worries about a gap. For Mr. Xi, the White House prepared to accommodate his visit on short notice. The Chinese leader has also been given a full two days with President Obama for one-on-one discussions at a California retreat. Both sides shed formal protocol to make the shirtsleeves summit between the leaders more personal to dive right into issues. In contrast, Mr. Abe had to push back his whirlwind visit to Washington by one month due to President Obamas tight schedule. Even then, he was only given one meeting and a working lunch.
Shinzo Abe is the fifth Japanese prime minister that President Obama has met in his time in office. The reason he held a working lunch is because he doesnt know how much longer Mr. Abe will be around, said Japan specialist Gerald Curtis of Columbia University On the other hand, he knows Mr. Xi will be around much longer. Until Mr. Abe can prove hes going to be around longer than a year, meetings are less likely to get on a personal level.
Its far from clear if this weeks meeting will result in an exchange of warm, fuzzy feelings between the Chinese and American leaders. Still, the occasion serves as a reminder in Japan that its been a while since a Japanese leader had a personal heart-to-heart with the U.S. president; the most recent that comes to mind was when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the last prime minister to last more than two years in office visited President Bushs Crawford ranch and Graceland. That was more than five years ago.
While Japanese leaders may not have had the personal touch with the U.S. president in recent years, security cooperation between Japan and the U.S. is stronger than ever. The Sunnylands Estate, the location of the informal meeting, is only about an hours drive away from Pendleton, the military base where about 1,000 Japanese Self-Defense force troops will participate in a huge joint exercise with U.S. troops running from June 11 to June 26 to enhance amphibious response capability and island-recapturing techniques. The United States denies that there is any specific target, but Kyodo News reported that China has firmly protested the drill and requested for its cancellation through diplomatic channels. That story made it to the front page of the Asahi Shimbun, a leading daily.
Japans media has been gauging how the dispute over the islands in the East China Sea called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China might fit into the Obama-Xi talks among other key topics like cybersecurity and North Korea. In his China Watch column in the Sankei Shimbun, a conservative daily, Seki Hei wrote on Thursday that he worried Mr. Xi will point out that China has been demonstrating flexibility to gain understanding of Mr. Obama while painting Japan as the obstacle to resolving the dispute. Because Japan takes the position that a territorial dispute does not exist and refuses to shelve the issue, Mr. Xi can push the responsibility to the Japanese side by complaining to President Obama that the problem is Japan, not China.
Robert Dujarric at Temple Universitys Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies in Tokyo doesnt agree that China will be able to use that card. He says that while it is important for the leaders to talk, the summit wont amount to anything earth-shattering in the U.S.-China relationship due to too many problems on the structural level. The Japanese media is overreacting. Six months from now, no one will even remember the summit happened. While Japan has concerns that U.S.-Japan relations will seriously deteriorate and China will work closer with the US, Japanese officials do not share that worry in regards to this specific summit.
Vance Serchuk of the Canon Institute of International Studies also suggests that any uneasiness that does exist in Japan about Chinas influence could be used as a stimulus for breathing new life into the U.S.-Japan relationship. Tokyo is right to worry about the implications of the growing gap between Chinese and Japanese power, and the United States has an overwhelming interest in a Japan that gets off the sidelines and back on its feet economically, diplomatically and militarily, Mr. Serchuk wrote in a Washington Post column in April.
Japan Paces Outside Obama-Xi Summit - Japan Real Time - WSJ
. by looking on the map, people can realise how irrelevant is Japan compare to China in term of connectivity to the rest of Asia...oops Japan is out of the map 
