Strengthening Our Japanese Alliance

Of the many items on President-elect Obama’s foreign policy to-do list, one of the most important long-term tasks is repairing America’s relationship with its key Asian ally, Japan. Though often taken for granted by American policymakers, Japan is the linchpin of America’s strategic position in Asia. Since the end of World War II, the U.S.-Japan alliance has underwritten the relative peace in Asia that has allowed the region to prosper.

While the relationship was attended to with renewed vigor during the early years of the Bush administration, the outgoing president’s North Korea policy and lean toward Beijing has alarmed policymakers in Tokyo, and set the relationship on a downward spiral.