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| Japan denies friction with US |
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
TOKYO: Japan’s centre-left government on Monday denied US ties were being strained by a row over an American airbase, amid confusion over whether its foreign minister will travel to Washington this week.
The US State Department on Saturday said Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada would meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, but within hours dropped mention of the meeting from Clinton’s schedule.
In Japan, media reports suggested Okada was still seeking a meeting late this week, ahead of a Tokyo visit next week by US President Barack Obama, but that he was busy with parliamentary duties on Friday.
Asked about the confusion, Japan’s top government spokesman Hirofumi Hirano told reporters on Monday: “It’s not that ties between Japan and the United States are strained, it’s just an administrative matter.” “At this point, nothing has been decided regarding such a trip,” he added.
The new government took power in Japan in mid-September vowing less subservient ties with the US after decades of conservative rule in Japan. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama confirmed on Monday in parliament that his government would scrap in January a naval refuelling mission supporting the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
His government has also promised to review a 2006 bilateral agreement on the roughly 47,000 US troops based in Japan — including the scheduled move of a US airbase on Okinawa island from an urban area to a coastal region by 2014.
Many Okinawans oppose the American presence and want the controversial US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base closed and moved off the island, rather than having it relocated to the coastal Camp Schwab site as previously agreed.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
