Japanese leaders are used to handling American presidents demanding things when they turn up in Tokyo every couple of years. Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa didn't even complain when President George Bush Sr. barfed on him over dinner in 1992.
Under Bush's war-distracted son, the Japanese had an easy time, but for several years before him President Bill Clinton bashed them around over a ballooning trade deficit. During one jaunt in Japan he gave his hosts the finger by visiting a Chrysler dealership to highlight the pathetic sales of American cars in Japan that he blamed on import restrictions. In retrospect it was the failure of America's once-mighty auto giants to build the kind of cars that the Japanese like to drive.
On Friday Barack Obama was in town and he, too, had reason to be demanding. The trade deficit is still there, but that no longer worries American policy makers. Instead, President Obama and his Administration are miffed that the new Japanese government would think of nixing a deal 15 years in the making to move U.S. Marines and their flying machines from their base in Futenma--smack-bang in the middle of Okinawa--to a location more out of sight of the locals. Japan's prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, talked himself into a corner by promising voters during recent national elections that he would review the relocation to find an even more out-of-the-way spot to appease Okinawans cheesed off at having to host the biggest concentration of military personnel.
Obama's Administration is happy to let the Japanese rethink the move as long as they stick to the original agreement: Change is welcome if everything stays the same, although Obama may let Hatoyama attach a few bells and whistles to the agreement to help him look as though he is doing what he promised. Following talks in Tokyo Friday, the two leaders, referring to each other by their first names, were all smiles and backslaps.
Japan is the easy part of Obama's Asia trip. After a day in Tokyo he hopped over to Singapore Saturday for the APEC leaders gathering, and Sunday he swung back east to Shanghai for the meaty part of his trip. He'll be there until Wednesday, and there is a lot to talk about. The Middle Kingdom is America's new trade-deficit bugbear and sneaky currency manipulator, two accolades the Japanese were happy to pass on to their emerging neighbor. But, unlike pacifist Japan, China, America's biggest creditor, is not afraid to slap back. Because China is buying a big chunk of the debt--more than $700 billion and counting--that is financing America's stimulus spending, they have the means to make it sting.
The relative demise of Japanese economic clout in Asia will also leave America with less swagger in the region. The rise of China may also add some distance to the close relationship between Tokyo and Washington because although the two democracies agree on the need to contain China's growing military power, they both want to cash in on the Chinese boom. That means doing the most to ensure that their businessmen get the better trade deals and concessions.
Still, there will always be a warm welcome for any U.S. president in Japan, so in the future Obama or his successors might want to tag on the Japan stop at the end of any Asia trip rather than at the start. After a bruising in China a friendly back-rub from a loyal ally might be just what the American leader needs before heading home.