Japan to reaffirm ties with US during Obama visit, US likely to call for Japan to ease tensions in region

Japan will likely look to enhance its alliance with the United States when President Barack Obama visits in April, as well as discuss issues of free trade and security, the government's top spokesperson said Thursday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wishes to discuss with the U.S. president ways in which both countries can strengthen their relations, by discussing a range of topics pertaining both to global and Asia- Pacific regions. The White House has said that Obama will visit Japan some time in late April and reaffirm his pledge to the region that he is America's first "Pacific President" committed to rebalancing military and strategic resources to the region. Obama's canceling of an Asian tour last year, coupled with some departures from his administration of key players committed to Washington's new focus on the Asia-Pacific region, like former secretaries of state and defense Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, had led some observers to believe Obama's convictions were waning. But Washington has confirmed that Obama's first stop on his Asian tour will be Japan for talks with Abe, followed by a trip to Seoul to meet South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, with the tour likely to end in Manila, where he will meet Philippine President Benigno Aquino. An official trip to China has also been earmarked for later in the year, the White House said. According to a White House statement, Obama's April Asian tour will highlight his "ongoing commitment to increase U.S. diplomatic, economic and security engagement with countries in the Asia- Pacific region." The U.S. president on his trip to Japan is likely to lean on Abe and his negotiating team to reach conclusions on a number of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pacts, that include 12 member nations, in a bid to speed up the creation of a free-trade bloc that will comprise some 40 percent of the global economy when it comes to full fruition. Japan has been a significant logjam in the negotiations, however, which were supposed to be concluded at the end of last year, as it is trying to maintain disproportionately high tariffs on its sensitive agricultural sector to protect the age-old industry, which other TPP member countries, including the United States, don't believe is in the spirit of the original TPP declaration agreed by the member countries. While Japan will be keen to discuss the security environment in Asia, with Abe and Obama almost certain to reaffirm the two country's bilateral security alliance and special friendship, Obama will be looking for Abe to expedite the relocation of the U. S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, in keeping with a previous bilateral pact. The delay in the base's relocation has been caused by local opposition and has been a headache for the central government here and Washington, who themselves have tried to sweeten the pot by promising to repost some 8,000 troops off Okinawa to places like Guam, to try and ease the base hosting burdens of the people of Okinawa -- the tiny island of which hosts 75 percent of all U.S. military in Japan. Also irking Washington is Abe's highly-controversial visit to a war-linked shrine on Dec. 26. Abe's ill-advised homage to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which enshrines 2.5 million souls including those of 14 Class-A convicted war criminals, is a painful reminder to Japan's neighbors of its brutal, militaristic rule during Word War II. Abe's visit drew the ire of Washington, who insisted Abe not make the visit prior to Dec. 26, but Abe ignored the requests even after hearing how his planned trip would provoke Japan's neighbors, including China and South Korea, who both suffered at the hand of Japan's imperialist brutality during the war. Having further unraveled diplomatic ties with both China and South Korea, punctuated by his visit to Yasukuni, Abe was chastised by Washington, who, in an unprecedented move said it was "disappointed" with Abe's visit to the shrine, as it would only serve to heighten tensions in the Asia-Pacific region at a time Washington is urging increased dialogue and enhanced diplomacy from all sides to address the ongoing issues that are alienating some countries from each other in Northeast Asia. Obama will likely want to hear first hand from Abe his intentions in visiting the shrine, knowing the diplomatic fallout it would have, according to observers here. Observers close to the matter also said that Abe will likely be requested by Obama to outline how he plans to ease friction between Japan and its neighbors, improve diplomacy in the region by addressing issues of territorial disputes and differing perceptions of history, in the interests of working towards easing the tensions in the region and not further adding to them.