BY AKIRA UCHIDA, KATSUHISA KURAMAE AND HIROSHI ITO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/04/09
When the White House named the leaders granted official summit talks with President Barack Obama, Japanese officials expected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to be on the list.
After all, the meetings would be held on the sidelines of next week's Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, and Obama and Hatoyama had promised to work together to create a world free of nuclear weapons.
As White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs named the leaders of China, India, Germany and other nations Tuesday, Japanese officials waited. And waited.
Hatoyama's name was not mentioned.
Although the reason for excluding Hatoyama was not given, diplomatic sources said it is clear that the deadlock over the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture has led to a stalemate in Japan-U.S. diplomacy at the highest level.
The snub has also affected the diplomatic efforts of Ichiro Ozawa, secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, who suspended his late April visit to the United States.
When asked about the snub, Hatoyama told reporters Wednesday, "As it is the decision of the United States, I have nothing to say about it."
But he added that he still wants to update Obama on the situation surrounding the Futenma relocation issue.
Foreign Ministry officials are trying to arrange a short informal talk between Hatoyama and Obama, saying even that would be preferable to a casual chat while they are standing.
However, Tokyo has long sought a summit between the two leaders. Their last meeting was in November in Japan, in which Hatoyama told Obama to "trust me" over the Futenma issue.
The prime minister's office had even drawn up a scenario on how their official talks would proceed at the Nuclear Security Summit, in which they would agree on major points on Futenma while details would be worked out by the end of May.
Obama's trust in Hatoyama over the Futenma relocation may have reached its limit.
Hatoyama, who promised voters in Okinawa he would move the base outside the prefecture, has floated various ideas on relocating Futenma. None of them have won support from the United States, which insists that the base be moved to the Henoko district of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, as agreed upon in 2006.
"As the government has found no clues to resolving the Futenma issue, Hatoyama would have had nothing to say even if he held the summit meeting (with Obama)," a senior official of the prime minister's office said.
Japanese officials wanted to use the Nuclear Security Summit to show that Hatoyama is standing hand in hand with Obama to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The Hatoyama-Obama summit was also supposed to help the DPJ establish its own diplomacy with the United States. But the DPJ plan will have to wait.
In February, Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, invited Ozawa to the United States during the Golden Week holiday from late April to early May.
Ozawa, in a meeting with executives of the ruling coalition parties, said: "Let's go together. The number of participants will be about 150."
That premise has collapsed with Obama's snub of Hatoyama.
Ozawa had also sought talks with Obama. But U.S. officials said it would be strange for Obama to meet Ozawa, who is not a state leader.
"Eventually, Ozawa was unable to make an appointment with Obama. That means Ozawa's power to influence other lawmakers will decline," a DPJ lawmaker said.
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