Obama arrives in Japan, backs its island dispute

TOKYO — Trade talks, territorial disputes and disagreements over war history await President Obama here in a long-delayed effort to reset U.S. policy in Asia.

Japan is Obama's first stop in a four-nation tour in which he hopes to convince Asian allies and adversaries that the U.S. "pivot" to Asia is more than just rhetoric. He'll also visit South Korea, the Philippines and Malaysia, but not China, the regional superpower.

Obama's visit is taking place amid unprecedented security. More than 16,000 police have sealed off roads and public spaces around the Imperial Palace, government offices and other locations around the city.

Obama kicked off his scheduled two-hour summit meeting with Abe early Thursday with a clear reference to Chinese misbehavior.

"Our shared shared democratic values mean that we must work together in a multilateral sense to react to regional hotspots around the world and try to make sure that we are creating a strong set of rules that govern the international order," Obama said.

The meeting is taking place in the sprawling Akasaka Palace — a green oasis of calm amid the bustle of crowded Tokyo.

Abe and his advisers, who hope to improve trade ties with the United States and are greatly concerned about the increasing aggressive moves of the Chinese military's claims to territories and resources in the vast East China Sea.

Those claims include the Senkaku Islands, largely uninhabited islets that Japan annexed more than a century ago. Ahead of his arrival in Japan, Obama confirmed that America's mutual security treaty with Japan applies to the islands at the center of a territorial dispute between China and Japan.

"The policy of the United States is clear," he said in a written response to questions published in Japan's Yomiuri newspaper.

"The Senkaku islands are administered by Japan" and therefore fall under the U.S.-Japan treaty, he wrote. "And we oppose any unilateral attempts to undermine Japan's administration of these islands."

The U.S. is obligated to protect Japan from attack, but has sought to avoid taking a stand on sovereignty over the islands.

During a recent Asian tour, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel pledged to deploy two more ballistic missile defense destroyers in Japan by 2017 in a bid to allay Japan's worries over the territorial dispute with China and missile launches by North Korea.

China's rising defense budget and increasingly aggressive territorial demands have raised questions among U.S. allies about whether Washington, weary of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and planning big cuts in defense, is truly committed to the region.

The Japanese, in particular, have questioned whether Obama will back them up if shooting starts over the Senkakus. China claims those islands as Diaoyu and has begun sending patrol ships into surrounding waters.

Obama's short stay in Japan – barely 36 hours – and the absence of first lady Michelle Obama are taken as signs in Tokyo of waning support from Washington.

"Abe and the Japanese are going through one of their frequent 'Is the U.S. going to help us in case of war?' periods of doubt. Obama has to show its allies — and more importantly, China — that the U.S. is ready to support them," says Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University of Japan, in Tokyo.

Another aim of the trip for Obama is to urge Japan to improve ties with South Korea — also a treaty ally — and to cooperate with its former foe on ballistic missile defense and other regional issues.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has refused to meet with Abe one-on-one because of disagreement over the "comfort women" who provided Japanese soldiers with sexual services while Japan marauded over the Korean Peninsula in the World War II era. South Korea also has a lingering dispute with Japan over islands in the Sea of Japan.

Trade issues remain a high priority for the trip, however. Obama is still looking to make progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an ambitious effort to ease tariffs and trade barriers among a dozen nations on both sides of the Pacific.

The administration had hoped for at least a tentative deal during Obama's visit but disagreement over auto and farm tariffs make that seem unlikely. Obama will also visit Malaysia and then conclude his trip with a stop in the Philippines, which is worried about Chinese claims to territory in the South China Sea.

Even Russia is making claims in the region. Moscow announced last week that it would reinforce defenses on the southern Kuril Islands, which Russian occupied at the end of World War II and which Japan wants back. For six consecutive days last week, Russian bombers — capable of carrying nuclear weapons — flew loops around the Japanese archipelago.

Obama's trip to Japan will be the first state visit to America's closest ally in Asia by a U.S. president since Bill Clinton came in 1996. He will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Malaysia since Lyndon Johnson in 1966.

Hjelmgaard reported from London.