Satoshi Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Barack Obama's use of extraordinarily harsh language in his informal talks with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama last week in Washington over Hatoyama's incompetence in addressing the Futenma relocation issue can only be interpreted as indicating the lapse of trusting relations between the Japanese and U.S. leaders.
Obama's wording--"Can you follow through?"--when asking Hatoyama about the Japanese leader's avowed goal of settling by the end of next month the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, could be interpreted as the president's direct expression of distrust of the prime minister.
Given the severity of the words that multiple informed sources quoted Obama as saying to Hatoyama during the brief talks at a dinner during the Nuclear Security Summit meeting, the U.S. administration as a whole is most likely to further intensify moves to distance itself from the Hatoyama government.
When asked by reporters Thursday about Obama's stern stance on the Futenma problem, Hatoyama said, "Media reports that I was rebuked [by Mr. Obama in the informal talks] for failing to make progress [on the Futenma issue] are entirely groundless."
Despite the prime minister's denial, one of the sources in Washington pointed out that the president "definitely" made the remarks, adding the person in charge of rendering the president's words into Japanese during the 10-minute Hatoyama-Obama talks was an "excellent, experienced interpreter," who the source said could never fail to have conveyed what Obama said to Hatoyama.
One Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hatoyama should have apologized at the informal talks for his failure to live up to his promise to settle the Futenma issue at an early date, and committed anew to solving the problem on his own responsibility.
Instead, the official went on, Hatoyama appeared to think of the problem as if it were other people's business, even having the nerve to say he would leave the matter up to consultations between Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos.
In this situation, the U.S. president might have felt his patience being tried to the limit, the official explained.
In past Japan-U.S. summit meetings, including those on issues such as the bilateral trade frictions of the 1990s, there were instances in which both sides' views clashed head-on, with the top U.S. leader criticizing Japan's way of dealing with particular matters of contention.
It is exceedingly unusual, however, for a U.S. president to directly use such words of distrust during a tete-a-tete with a Japanese prime minister.
Before the revelation of Obama's words to Hatoyama in their informal talks, both the Japanese and U.S. governments were keen to keep such information from being leaked to outside parties, which in turn gave rise to speculation that Hatoyama might have received quite a tongue-lashing from Obama.
As there has been little progress in the process of gaining consensus for relocating Futenma's functions among local communities in possible candidate areas as well as within the ruling coalition parties, interest has intensified within the Obama administration about what really is happening in Japan's political world, especially in connection with this summer's House of Councillors election.
"Instead, we've paid much attention to what may evolve in Japan over the next three months--in May, June and July," the source noted.
On U.S. government moves to distance itself from the Hatoyama administration, some analysts said Washington deems Tokyo as trying to have the United States sit down at the negotiating table although the U.S. side knows full well that the Hatoyama government's current Futenma's relocation plans are far from feasible.
Washington might even harbor suspicions that the Hatoyama government might have a mind to pass the buck to the United States after failing to solve the Futenma problem, by dragging Washington into negotiations that have no prospects of bearing fruit, the analysts said.
When Okada made a request anew for Roos on Wednesday to start working-level talks on the Futenma issue, the ambassador declined to meet Okada, telling him via phone it was not necessary to have talks at this time.
Roos' rejection of Okada's entreaties, and last week's cancellation of a planned trip to Japan by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell that had been previously scheduled for this month, can be considered pointing to the United States acting out of its sense of distrust of the Hatoyama administration.
(Apr. 19, 2010)
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