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Japan has told the United States it will end a naval refueling mission [in the Indian Ocean] that supports the war in Afghanistan, a top defence official said...Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month, has said he wants "more equal" relations with the United States and that he opposes plans to build a new US air base on the southern island of Okinawa...

For over 50 years, one party ruled Japan virtually uninterrupted. During that time, Japan remained a loyal ally and supporter of U.S. policy. This month, a historic event took place. Japan has new leadership. In a landslide victory, a new party has done the seemingly impossible. A new freshman class of leaders now governs the Land of the Rising Sun. The effects are already rippling across the Pacific toward America. Yukio Hatoyama is Japan’s new leader. He officially took office last Wednesday, and he is already threatening to split with the United States. Hatoyama blames America for the global economic...

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...

Japan has announced it is extending its military mission in Afghanistan by another year. The decision was taken despite fierce resistance from the opposition. The Japanese navy provides logistical support to the international coalition in Afghanistan, including refuelling warships in the Indian Ocean.

On Saturday, the New York Times criticized the Pentagon’s spending plans for buying, among other things, the F-22 stealth fighter, also known as the Raptor. According to the paper, that’s just concentrating on “the kind of weapons that might have made sense during the cold war but have little use in the kind of conflicts America is involved in and is likely to face in the foreseeable future.” The Air Force acquired the F-22 to penetrate the Soviet Union and face its fleet of Su-27 fighters. The Times reasons that, because the USSR disappeared, so did our need for the...

Defense Ministry eyes domestic fighter jet The Yomiuri Shimbun The Defense Ministry will include in its fiscal 2008 budgetary request funds to develop a manned prototype fifth-generation fighter jet equipped with stealth capabilities and other advanced technologies, sources said Monday. With the production of F-2 support fighters, jointly developed by Japan and the United States, scheduled to end in fiscal 2011, the ministry apparently plans to maintain the foundations for future technological development, the sources said. The sources also said the ministry, by showing interest in developing jet fighters domestically, hopes to gain an edge in negotiations with the United...

Loving tender and holding tight are about more than Elvis for Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi . Beneath the spontaneity and flamboyance that his countrymen sum up as Koizumi Theater lies heartfelt compassion. On Thursday last week, the day before he went to Graceland, Koizumi spent some quality time with U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq and recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Koizumi, boyish with a bohemian hair flip, chatted with several patients and posed for pictures with them and their families on the hospital's fifth floor, the Japanese Embassy's minister for public affairs, Mitsuru Kitano , said...

President Bush and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a press conference (text and video here) at the White House to discuss the war on terror, defending freedom and democracy, promoting regional security and prosperity in Asia (including North Korea), and enhancing closer cooperation on global economic issues (including Japan now agreeing to open its markets to US beef). This is Koizumi's farewell visit, as he steps down from his position as Prime Minister in September. President and Mrs. Bush will host an official dinner tonight for the Prime Minister. Secretary of State Rice continues her G8 Foreign Minister Summit...

A Japanese soldier waves while aboard an armoured vehicle in Samawa, 270 km (160 miles) south of Baghdad December 27, 2005. Hundreds of Japanese troops who are in Iraq for humanitarian missions have just completed a water facilities project in Iraq's southern city. (REUTERS/Mohameed Ameen)

TOKYO - The Japanese government has decided to proceed with the United States in developing a joint missile defense shield, a top government official said Saturday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said steps would be taken to ensure the decision to pursue the shield, which uses defensive missiles to destroy attacking ones before they reach their targets, does not violate Japan’s pacifist constitution. “Amid proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, the system is a genuinely defensive, and the only instrument to protect the lives and assets of our people,” Abe said. “It suits the defense policy...

TOKYO (AP) - Japan's Cabinet on Thursday approved the extension of the country's troop deployment in Iraq for one year, paving the way for the government to prolong Tokyo's largest military mission since World War II. Japan deployed about 600 troops to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on a humanitarian mission in early 2004 as part of the U.S.-led coalition. The one-year renewal extends the deployment - due to expire next week - to Dec. 14, 2006. The extension, however, does not require the troops to remain in Iraq for the full year, and local media have reported that...

Japan's increasing reliance on US wins few friends in jittery region Koizumi's deteriorating relationship with China might confront Canberra with unpleasant choices, writes Tokyo correspondent Peter Alford JAPAN is becoming more isolated in Asia as its strategic engagement with the US tightens and its difficulties with China worsen. Its few friends are growing worried. As a result of Junichiro Koizumi's refusal last week to foreswear further visits to the Yasukuni shrine war memorial, South Korea's Roh Moo-hyun seems to have joined China's top leaders in refusing formal meetings with him. Chinese President Hu Jintao now declines to meet his Japanese...

A Vital Alliance, Built by Bush By Peter Brookes CNSNews.com Commentary November 15, 2005 President Bush, now in Japan, deserves a victory lap for a singular foreign policy accomplishment -- growing and deepening the U.S.-Japan alliance. Bush critics bemoan the state of relations with supposed European allies like France and Germany, but overlook the improvements in the Japanese alliance. Yet Japan is becoming a partner to America comparable only to Britain -- a staunch ally in the region, and a global partner in other issues around the globe; two powers that share similar values and vision, willing to pool resources...

The leader of Japan's main opposition party says that victory in next month's election means Japanese troops, which are being protected by Australian forces, will be pulled out of Iraq. Some 600 Japanese troops are based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa, which is under the control of Australian soldiers stationed in Al Muthanna province. Katsuya Okada, president of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), railed against Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision to extend the historic deployment of Japanese forces. "If we win the election, that means Japanese nationals wish to withdraw from Iraq, as we have promised it...

Scotland: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he had no plans to withdraw his troops from Iraq following the fatal bomb blasts in London. Asked by journalists at a Group of Eight summit here if he would consider bringing the troops home, Koizumi replied: "No." The attacks and the Japanese operation in Iraq "should not be directly linked," he said. A group calling itself the Organisation of Al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe claimed yesterday's attacks in London and threatened similar strikes in Denmark, Italy and other "Crusader" states with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Japan, a major US ally in...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan will pull its troops out of Iraq in December when the term of its current humanitarian mission expires, local media quoted government officials as saying. The government is expected to notify parliament and countries concerned as early as September after studying the situation in Iraq, Kyodo News reported late Wednesday, quoting unnamed government sources. It will then switch its aid mainly to official development assistance, it said. Officials were not available for comment on Thursday, a national holiday. The arrangement is meant to coincide with the scheduled launch of a permanent Iraqi government and the expiration...

Escalating tension with China, violently illustrated by renewed anti-Japanese protests in Shanghai and other big cities at the weekend, is increasing pressure on Tokyo to expand its military capabilities and back a deepening strategic alliance with the US reaching from east Asia to the Gulf. Japan's pacifist postwar constitution restricts its armed forces to self-defence. About 50,000 US troops in Okinawa and other bases guarantee the country's security in return for a $5bn (£2.6bn) Japanese cash contribution. But defence analysts say the perceived Chinese threat, a more assertive, nationalistic Japanese mindset, and Washington's wish to use Japan as a command...

Italy’s possible scale-down of its troops in Iraq will have no effect on Japan’s deployment of 550 troops in the country, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said today. “Italy is Italy, Japan is Japan,” Koizumi told reporters when asked if the prospect of a pullout by Rome could lead to a similar move by Tokyo. Japan has been a vocal supporter of the US-led military mission in Iraq and has dispatched 550 troop to the southern city of Samawah on a humanitarian operation in support of reconstruction.

The new U.S.-Japanese statement of “Common Strategic Goals” adopted on February 19 capped a decade of deepening security ties between the two countries. Indeed, the statement is intended to serve as a guideline for the comprehensive transformation of the alliance. While the upgrading of the alliance serves a number of Tokyo’s strategic purposes, there is no mistaking the fact that Japan has decided to join the United States in its grand strategy of checking China’s great-power ambitions. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Tokyo has taken advantage of the U.S.-led war on terrorism, Washington’s encouragement of Japanese efforts...

Japan to become 'Britain of the Far East'By Kosuke Takahashi The accord between the United States and Japan calling for strengthened bilateral military and security ties - ties already reinforced by China's military buildup, North Korea's nuclear crisis, and the global threat of terrorism - marks the evolution of the US-Japan relationship and signals a critical historic phase in the early 21st century. With possible flashpoints ranging from the Middle East to Northeast Asia, the US global military transformation - under fire from many quarters - is transforming Japan itself into a reliable and unswerving "Britain of the Far...