Posted on 09/12/2009 10:28:45 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A split is emerging between the United States and Japan over the new Tokyo government's anti-globalisation rhetoric and its threats to end a refueling agreement for US ships in support of the war in Afghanistan.
Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, has caused alarm in Washington after publishing an article blaming the US for the ills of capitalism, the global economy and "the destruction of human dignity".
He also intends to examine an agreement that permits US warships to dock at Japanese ports, in violation of the nation's non-nuclear principles. Mr Hatoyama says he will also look again at the $6 billion cost faced by Japan to transfer thousands of US troops from their base in Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam amid a wide-ranging review of the American military presence on Japanese soil.
His election campaign promised a more "independent" foreign policy from Washington and closer relations with Asian neighbours, including China. On Thursday, he repeated his intention to defy the US and end the Maritime Self-Defence Force's resupply mission in the Indian Ocean.
Mr Hatoyama will be sworn in on Wednesday after an historic victory that ended decades of near unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. He will have his first meeting with Barack Obama, the US president, at the United Nations on Sep 22.
The Pentagon reminded Japan of the expectations it faced as a "great power and one of the world's wealthiest countries". Geoff Morrell, a spokesman, said: "There is an international responsibility, we believe, for everyone to do their share, as best they can, to contribute to this effort to bring about a more peaceful and secure Afghanistan."
The Defence Department would not "prejudge" Japan's new political leadership, he added.
"We think that when the responsibility of governing comes
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Withdraw troops from Japan, South Korea, Iraq. Heck, why not Germany?
I thought that Obama was going to make everyone love us.
Isn’t the incoming party the rats of Japan? I say withdraw and let them deal with their own security.
They won’t need us when the First Lady of Japan can get an alliance with the Venusians
They are treating the U.S. as if we are some kind of third world banana republic! Wait a minute! We are a third world banana republic now! Never mind.
There's been lots of hostility in prior years about US bases in Okinawa.
No matter where you go, ‘rats are ‘rats.
Now Japan gets a taste of politicians gone wrong. Perhaps it's time the Japanese First Lady invited the Obamas to tea (Venus would be far enough away.......).
Hey Zer0, this is incoming!
Now you must immediately get your spin machine in gear to blame Bush, skip Clintoon; hit the elder Bush, and Reagan.
You, Zer0, will never acknowledge responsibity for anything.
Maybe you need to dispatch one of your Czar toadies that report to Her Thighness, to see if they can kiss the toes of the Japanese!
Who elected this maroon? What’s going to happen to the world’s second largest economy? What’s going to happen to Japanese prosperity?
Maybe this guy won’t last long.
Ever get the idea that the whole world is starting to circle the drain?
I’ve read about that. And I understand that they want the base closed, so what better time than now. I mean, I’m sure the Chinese will play nice, and the North Koreans will be happy to stop shooting missiles.
Right about now, I would vote to withdraw all troops from the locations you enumerated.
They’ve all been living large on the US taxpayer’s largess. They’ve all been able to channel their monies into social welfare schemes and government support of their export industries, to our detriment, because they’ve been able to spend such paltry sums on their own defense.
Welfare time is over. Time to pull our troops home and let these countries fend for themselves.
So the Japanese elected some shrill leftist govt and now want to be belligerent toward us. Well, good luck with China and North Korea a-holes.
Many of us have been saying that for years, but have been derided for saying so.
The Japanese people elected him. And the reason why is that while we’re having a “Great Recession” here in the US, Japan is in near depression.
Toyota has laid people off from auto plants in Japan. That has not happened since 1945. The Japanese export sector, which is responsible for a huge chunk of their national GDP, has collapsed with upwards of 40% declines in some of the last nine months.
The prior ruling party has been promising a turn-around in the Japanese economy since 1992 or so. They’ve tried Keynesian spending in a HUGE way — there are places you can go in Tokyo where highway overpasses just end in the middle of space. The road was never really needed; it was being built merely to keep people busy and employed.
They’ve tried QE. It hasn’t worked.
They’ve gone from being a nation with a fiscally sound budget and a huge cash surplus to being a debtor nation in a short amount of time post 2000. And now, to top all the prior “missing decade” misery off, there are a whole lot of workers who are being laid off as their export sector collapses.
For these reasons, the political party that has pretty much ruled Japan non-stop since the end of WWII was broomed out of office in a big way in the last month.
It’s upsetting when a reliable strategic partner up and elects a radical wackjob who starts bailing on long-standing agreements the second he gets in power. Obama should ask the UK and Poland what that’s like.
Wonder how all those camera, electronics and auto companies there feel about that idiot harassing their best customer.
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