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Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has emphasised how difficult it is to say ‘no' to the United States over its military preferences in his own country. The message, after he held urgent consultations with his cabinet colleagues on May 10, is that he remains unable to strike an “equal relationship” with the U.S., despite his efforts to do so since he became Prime Minister over eight months ago.

The U.S. is Japan's long-standing military ally. At the same time, Japan, China, and South Korea are also engaged in trilateral diplomacy at the summit level under what can be described as Fukuoka consensus. The consensus is in essence a political matter of potential hedging against the U.S. by these three neighbouring Northeast Asian countries. It was at...