WebMemo posted February 8, 2012 by Bruce Klingner
White House Deal with Japan Risks Military Capability in Asia
On February 8, the United States and Japan jointly announced changes to the existing bilateral accord for realigning U.S. Marines on Okinawa. While both sides affirmed commitment to relocating a Marine air unit on the island, more significantly, the Obama Administration abandoned longstanding U.S. insistence that Japan fulfill pre-conditional commitments prior to…
WebMemo posted January 6, 2012 by Bruce Klingner
The Missing Asia Pivot in Obama's Defense Strategy
President Obama’s new defense strategy is long on rhetoric but bereft of details on how it will actually be implemented. The President boldly promised to maintain or augment U.S. military capabilities against a spectrum of global threats, but planned draconian defense cuts of $1 trillion would undermine the U.S.’s ability to achieve its national interests and defend…
WebMemo posted August 30, 2011 by Bruce Klingner, Derek Scissors, Ph.D.
The U.S. Needs a Real Partner in the New Japanese Prime Minister
As dependable as the tide, a new prime minister has washed ashore in Japan. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda is the latest iteration of what has become an annual ritual of Japanese leadership change. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been unceremoniously tossed aside, although his 15-month term will be remembered as relatively long by recent Japanese standards.
The future…
WebMemo posted May 18, 2011 by Bruce Klingner
Proposed Re-Realignment for Northeast Asia Ignores Strategic Realities
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D–MI), ranking member John McCain (R–AZ), and Senator Jim Webb (D–VA) have called on the United States to overhaul two complex military realignment agreements with South Korea and Japan. Their proposals would undermine years of carefully crafted diplomacy that achieved U.S. strategic objectives and resolved contentious…
Backgrounder posted January 7, 2011 by Bruce Klingner
The Case for Comprehensive Missile Defense in Asia
Abstract:
The United States and its allies are at risk of missile attack from a growing number of states and nonstate terrorist organizations. This growing threat is particularly clear in East Asia, where diplomacy has failed to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them on target, and where China continues the most active nuclear…
WebMemo posted November 9, 2010 by Bruce Klingner, Dean Cheng
Do Not Expect Much from Japan During Obama Visit
Any Japanese hopes that hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit would highlight Tokyo’s regional leadership abilities or reverse Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s plummeting approval ratings have been dashed. Instead, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is buffeted by escalating domestic criticism for its timorous foreign policies, which encouraged…
WebMemo posted September 27, 2010 by Dean Cheng
East China Sea Flare-Up: Learning the Wrong Lessons in Beijing
Japanese prosecutors have reportedly decided to release the captain of the Chinese fishing boat whom they arrested after he apparently rammed two Japanese coast guard vessels in the waters around the Senkakus. The decision, a Japanese deputy public prosecutor said, was made “taking into account the impact on our citizens and Japan–China relations, [so] our judgment was…
WebMemo posted September 24, 2010 by Dean Cheng
China–Japan Confrontation at Sea: Senkaku Islands Issue Won’t Go Away
In recent weeks, a group of uninhabited rocky outcroppings in the East China Sea between Okinawa and Taiwan have become a serious source of tension between Beijing and Tokyo. On September 8, the Japan Coast Guard arrested the crew of a Chinese fishing vessel operating in the waters off the Senkakus, which is administered by Japan. Reports indicate that the fishing boat,…
WebMemo posted June 2, 2010 by Bruce Klingner
New Japanese Government Should Affirm Support for Agreed Repositioning of U.S. Forces
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has bowed to the inevitable and announced his resignation, abruptly terminating his troubled administration. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a historic victory in the powerful lower house election last August, ending the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) 50-year reign. The DPJ’s landslide win ushered in unfounded expectations…
WebMemo posted March 24, 2010 by Bruce Klingner
Politics of Well-Known Japanese “Secrets” Risk American Nuclear Umbrella
On March 9, a Japanese foreign ministry panel revealed that several military agreements between Tokyo and Washington had been kept secret from the Japanese legislature and public for decades. The panel was created ostensibly to fulfill a Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) campaign pledge to improve government transparency. But the report conveniently provides the DPJ a…
Backgrounder posted December 16, 2009 by Bruce Klingner
U.S. Should Stay Firm on Implementation of Okinawa Force Realignment
Abstract: Attempts by the new Japanese government to renegotiate terms of the Guam Agreement, which would realign U.S. military forces in Japan, have seriously strained U.S.-Japan relations, harming the bilateral military alliance. The situation has not yet become a crisis, but continued mishandling could make it one. Japan needs to implement the terms of the agreement.…