ឈី វិជ្ជរ៉ា – Vichara CHHY

Source : Economist.com , Date : Sep 17, 2009 

 Japan, which has long been a close alliance with America, is attracted people’s intention on whether with his new leader, Yukio Hatoyama, his foreign policy will be shaking.

The importance of the relationship with America has spawned puzzlement and even suspicion about how Mr Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will conduct foreign policy. In opposition, it voted against many of the security agreements with the Bush administration. It bitterly contested the Iraq war. And it has opposed the decision to spend $6 billion on relocating 8,000 marines from a base on the Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam.

Mr Hatoyama’s main foreign-policy goal is to establish a more “equal” partnership with America. This, however, puts him in the predicament of a rebellious youth desperate to break out of its parents’ clutches—but unable to afford it. He has expensive campaign promises to meet, such as expanding social welfare and child support, and little scope to spend more on rearming. For the time being Mr Hatoyama is unlikely to provide much clarity on how he feels about the American relationship, even when he meets informally with Barack Obama at the United Nations in New York. He would far prefer to dwell on issues such as climate change, where he has already delighted environmentalists with a promise—albeit with strings attached—to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020.

Mr Hatoyama has made a strong commitment to improve relations with other Asian countries, and has a chance of easing decades-old tensions because of his party’s history of sincere apology for Japan’s wartime atrocities.