Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama shared a firm handshake Friday in front of the cameras at their bilateral meeting, but behind the smiles lie tensions between the two countries that have yet to be addressed.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Analysts said the most symbolic issue the two leaders avoided was the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture, which was agreed to by Tokyo and Washington in a 2006 accord.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Koji Murata, a political science professor at Doshisha University, pointed out that the Hatoyama administration is only focusing on general, long-term goals and avoiding difficult issues that need to be dealt with more urgently.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>'The Democratic Party of Japan just wants to focus on clean, global, long-term topics,' Murata said. </PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>'The characteristic of DPJ diplomacy is that it is interested in long-term and abstract goals but cannot solve concrete, short-term issues — how can such a country expect to influence major powers like the U.S. and China?'</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>During the campaign for the Aug. 30 general election, Hatoyama as president of the DPJ promised voters that a government led by his party would be tougher in diplomatic negotiations with the U.S. and seek 'an equal footing' with Washington.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Specifically, the DPJ has argued that the Futenma air base should be moved outside Okinawa or even the country, giving more consideration to the antimilitary sentiment of Okinawans.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>But well before his summit with Obama, Hatoyama, who became prime minister in September, had indicated he wouldn't prioritize the sensitive relocation issue in their talks. His stance was due to the lack of progress in negotiations given the 'not-in-my-backyard' sentiment across Japan regarding U.S. bases and Washington's reluctance to merge Futenma's flight operations with the nearby U.S. Kadena air base.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>Avoiding the Futenma issue during Obama's stay in Tokyo 'was convenient for both sides,' Murata said.</PARAGRAPH>
<PARAGRAPH>'Japan didn't want to bring it to the table because it knew it couldn't solve it before Obama's arrival, and on the other hand, the U.S. is dealing with various difficult issues like Afghanistan and –
health insurance, and it didn't want to expose disagreements" with Japan.
As concern grew over the diplomatic tensions between the U.S. and Japan, the two governments decided to set up a ministerial-level working group earlier in the week to "probe" Futenma's relocation. However, no deadline for reaching a decision has been set.
"This is merely a way to buy time — there is no idea behind" the working group, Murata said.
"No one knows what (the government) is trying to do by 'probing' . . . the working group is just to postpone the conclusion and the situation is just bound to get worse."
