Q+A: New Japan PM to seek equal partnership with U.S

Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:53am EDT

By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to steer a more independent diplomatic course from top security ally Washington, sparking concern about possible friction in the relationship.

Though he has promised to keep the United States at the core of foreign policy, a number of security issues could ruffle ties as Hatoyama prepares for his diplomatic debut in the United States next week.

Following are questions and answers on some of the issues:

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN?

Japan hosts about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a source of irritation for communities near military bases, with many complaints of crime, noise, pollution and accidents.

Former Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa drew criticism when he said this year that most of the troops were not needed.

But the party's election manifesto made no mention of such an idea, instead promising to propose amendments to the Status of Forces Agreement under which U.S. troops operate in Japan and to rethink a planned redeployment of U.S. troops.

Washington and Tokyo have agreed to ease the burden of U.S. bases on the southern island of Okinawa by moving a 4,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps base from the center of a town to a less populated area in the north of the island.

The deal means 8,000 Marines will also be moved from Okinawa, partly at Japan's expense, to the U.S. territory of Guam.

Washington is keen to press ahead with the project, which is supposed to be completed by 2014, partly because the issue has dragged on since an initial agreement on the bases in 1996.

But many residents of Okinawa, which suffered one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two, are dissatisfied with the plan for environmental and other reasons.

Hatoyama has said the Marine base at Futenma should be moved away from Okinawa but he has not proposed an alternative location.

The party's proposed changes to the agreement would include a requirement that U.S. forces make good any damage to the environment caused by their activities, a Japanese newspaper reported recently.

Several cases of contamination have been discovered at sites returned to Japan by the U.S. military.

HOW FAR WILL JAPAN BACK U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITIES?

Hatoyama has said a Democratic government would not renew the mandate for Japanese ships on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led military activities in Afghanistan, although ships would not be brought home immediately.

The legal mandate for the mission, which the Democrats opposed in parliament, expires in January.

The United States wants to encourage Japan to continue the mission, U.S. Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said last week.

Hatoyama's predecessor, Ozawa, had mentioned an alternative option of sending troops to Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate, but the idea of putting soldiers' lives at risk is unlikely to gain popular support. No Japanese troops have been killed in action since World War Two.

WHAT LINE WILL THE NEW GOVT TAKE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?

Japan has long been ambivalent about nuclear arms.

Many Japanese use the fact that Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks as a platform to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

Hatoyama backs President Barack Obama's calls for a world free of nuclear arms and has promised to uphold Japan's three "non-nuclear principles" banning the making, possession or introduction into the country of nuclear arms.

Hatoyama will likely call for a nuclear arms-free world in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September, Japanese media say. Hatoyama has also said he will seek a U.S. pledge not to bring nuclear-armed vessels into Japanese ports.

But Japan benefits from a nuclear "umbrella" provided by Washington, something many see as increasingly important, given China's growing military might and North Korea's nuclear arms programme.

WILL JAPAN STILL SEEK TO BUY F-22 FIGHTER PLANES?

Under the previous government, led by the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan sought to replace some of its aging fighter planes with Lockheed-Martin Corp's radar-evading F-22.

But exports of the plane from the U.S. are currently banned, and it is unclear whether the Democrats would favor the state-of-the-art F-22 over alternatives on the market such as BAE Systems' Eurofighter Typhoon or Boeing's F15.

HOW WILL JAPAN'S ASIA STRATEGY CHANGE?

Hatoyama advocates a new East Asian Community modeled after the European Union, though he concedes that it would take more than ten years to set up a unified regional currency.

He wants to deepen ties with China and has said he will stay away from Yasukuni, the war shrine seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's military aggression across the region in the early 20th century.

(Editing by Rodney Joyce)