U.S. Will Defer to Japan on Moving Okinawa Base

[DesiGuy]

TOKYO — Striking a conciliatory tone on an issue that has divided Japan and the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that the Obama administration would follow Tokyo’s lead in working to relocate an American air base on Okinawa.

During talks with Japanese leaders in Tokyo, Mr. Gates said he also discussed a sophisticated new antimissile system that the United States is jointly developing with the Japanese, and the two nations’ response to North Korea’s recent military provocations against the South.

However, a top item on the agenda was the relocation of the United States Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, an emotional issue here that drove an uncharacteristic wedge between the two allies last year when the prime minister at the time, Yukio Hatoyama, wavered on whether to keep the base on Okinawa.

While the two nations finally agreed in May to relocate the noisy helicopter base to a less populated part of Okinawa by 2014, local resistance has made that time frame look increasingly unrealistic.

On Thursday, Mr. Gates said the administration did not want the Futenma issue to overshadow the overall security alliance with Japan, which last year had its 50th anniversary. He also signaled that the United States was willing to be flexible in allowing Tokyo to resolve the domestic political resistance to the relocation plan.

“We do understand that it is politically a complex matter in Japan,” Mr. Gates said after meeting Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. “And we intend to follow the lead of the Japanese government in working with the people of Okinawa to take their interests and their concerns into account.”

The softer tone is a departure from Mr. Gates’s visit to Tokyo in October 2009, when he strongly pushed the fledgling government of Mr. Hatoyama to honor an earlier agreement to relocate the base on Okinawa. Those pressure tactics backfired, creating resentment in the new government that the United States was trying to bully it.

Mr. Hatoyama eventually stepped down amid criticism for mishandling the alliance with the United States. His successor, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has worked to strengthen security ties with Tokyo’s traditional protector.

On Thursday, Mr. Gates and Mr. Kitazawa also discussed one of the two nations’ largest joint projects, the development of an advanced new missile system that will be fired from ships to intercept larger ballistic missiles while in midflight.

Washington wants to be able to sell the sophisticated system, known as the SM-3, to other nations, possibly including South Korea. However, that would require Japan to rewrite its tight restrictions on weapons exports, which have been a pillar of the nation’s post-World War II pacifism.

While Mr. Gates said Washington hoped to defray development costs by exporting the system, he was aware that this was a sensitive matter in Japan.

“It makes economic sense to make it available to others,” Mr. Gates said of the new missile interceptor. “But we understand there are certain processes that have to be gone through here.”

Mr. Kan has called for a public debate on revising the restrictions, which many Japanese see as necessary to advance closer security cooperation with the United States in responding to China and North Korea.

Mr. Gates, whose next stop is South Korea, said he had asked Japan for help in pressuring the North not to strike South Korea again. He has said he is worried that South Korea might feel forced to make a strong retaliation after already suffering North Korean attacks last year on an island and a warship. Pyongyang has denied involvement in the latter.

“It’s a longstanding principle that every country has the right to protect itself and defend itself against an unprovoked attack,” Mr. Gates said. “The objective that we all have in common is how do we prevent another provocation from taking place?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/world/asia/14military.html?_r=1&ref=asia

 

[Parashuram1]

Mr. Hatoyama eventually stepped down amid criticism for mishandling the alliance with the United States. His successor, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has worked to strengthen security ties with Tokyo’s traditional protector.

You know, it is quite an enigma to me as to how come Japanese prime ministers barely last terms continuously. Amongst first world countries, I think they are the only country that changes their leaders so fast and without completing a term.

 

[Jigs]

“And we intend to follow the lead of the Japanese government in working with the people of Okinawa to take their interests and their concerns into account.”

In other words the U.S. military presence isn't going to leave. I doubt Japan could even turn this into a bargaining chip with the U.S. like Turkey does.

 

[Parashuram1]

In other words the U.S. military presence isn't going to leave. I doubt Japan could even turn this into a bargaining chip with the U.S. like Turkey does.

Not until they get serious about self-reliance in foreign and strategy. One thing about you Turks is that you do not let others trample your sense of independence, which in my view is a good thing.

But if Japanese do get serious about this moving away from Americans and thinking for their own self, then this would mean rapid militarization of Japan. They have the money, the men and the technology to achieve that in a very short span of time. Which would be fatal to American domination of east Asia.

 

[CardSharp]

The very fact that Japan has just been given this option, is kind of humiliating, but they again they did lose the WWII.