Top Japanese and U.S. officials boasted that Saturday's interim report on U.S. military realignment in Japan will realize the two principles they set out to achieve -- maintaining a deterrent force in the Asia-Pacific region and reducing the burden of host communities.
But reactions here a day later indicate otherwise -- several local governments named in the report as sites for new military assignments have voiced their opposition, while many defense experts see the agreement as a political compromise that may seriously undermine the bilateral security alliance in the future.
"We've agreed to findings and recommendations that will strengthen capabilities the alliance requires to meet those common objectives" of the two nations, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a news conference in Washington upon the report's release. "At the same time, we will be able to reduce impacts on local Japanese communities."