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Japan’s incoming government seeks to reassure US
Managing ties with the United States is high on the agenda after the party said it wanted to chart a course more independent of Washington.
But Hatoyama is not expected to damage an alliance long at the core of Japan's diplomacy and a senior Democratic Party lawmaker sought on Wednesday to allay any simmering concerns, including among investors, over the relationship.
"We have repeatedly said Japan-US relations are most important as a basic principle in diplomacy and stressed the importance of continuity in diplomacy," Kohei Otsuka said in an interview with Reuters.
The Democrats have said they want to reexamine an agreement governing US military forces in Japan and a deal under which about 8,000 Marines will leave for the US territory of Guam and a Marine Corps air base shifted to a less-populated part of the southern island of Okinawa.
New US ambassador to Japan John Roos said in an interview with US National Public Radio the deals were not negotiable. "Just to make it abundantly clear, both the United States and Japan, at the government-to-government level, have made it absolutely clear that these agreements have been signed, agreed to, and are going forward," Roos said.
The Democrats have said they want the air base moved off Okinawa, where many residents feel they shoulder an unfair share of the burden for the US-Japan security alliance.
Hatoyama will head to the United States soon after forming his cabinet to make his diplomatic debut at a U.N. General Assembly meeting and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Japanese media said he would also hold talks with US President Barack Obama.
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