President Obama lands in Tokyo this week as U.S.-Japan relations hit their lowest point in years.
The president will meet with Japan’s new government, representing the first opposition party to take power in over a half-century. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party of Japan is finding little common ground early on with the Democratic president of the United States.
President Obama’s ability to smooth over some significant disagreements between the two allies may set the tone for the remainder of his administration. A failure to find common ground could lead both sides to feel less appetite for working with each other and more interest in reaching out to other nations in Asia, such as China.
At the core of the current contretemps is a 2006 agreement to move a Marine Corps Air Station out of its urban setting in Okinawa to a less populated part of the island. That is supposed to be followed by the relocation of thousands of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam, and the return to Japanese control of other U.S. bases on the island.
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