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Bush arrives in Japan to start Asia trip
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-15 22:57
President Bush arrived in Japan aboard Air Force One on
Tuesday, with no public appearances scheduled until Wednesday morning local time
— Tuesday evening in Washington. He was to tour the Golden Temple, meet with
youth leaders and sit down with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi before
delivering remarks on the power of democracy.
U.S. President Bush and first lady Laura Bush
step off Air Force One as they arrive at Osaka International Airport en
route to Kyoto, Japan, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005. Bush will overnight in
Japan and meet with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi before continuing to
Busan, South Korea, for the APEC conference.
[AP] |
The mood will be celebratory when Bush takes center stage in this ancient
capital with Koizumi, his closest ally in Asia.
The two leaders meet Wednesday amid apparent progress toward ending the
two-year-old Japanese ban on U.S. beef imports that has irritated the Americans.
And the two countries just announced an agreement to realign and reduce U.S.
military forces in Japan, resolving an issue that had caused concern in Tokyo.
Bush and Koizumi were expected to keep under wraps a host of trickier
matters, such as a growing trade deficit with Japan, Tokyo's reluctance to
reduce the kind of farm subsidies that are holding up progress on a U.S.-backed
global free-trade pact, and a recent Koizumi visit to a controversial shrine
that has roiled relations between Japan and neighbors South Korea and China.
Aimed primarily at China, Bush's speech will hold up such nations as Japan,
Australia and South Korea as models because of their strong democratic
traditions and willingness to help establish democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
From Japan, Bush flies to South Korea to meet with President Roh Moo-hyun and
attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Bush's overnight stay in Japan is the first leg of an eight-day Asia trip
that also takes the president to China and Mongolia.
Koizumi earned Bush's steadfast loyalty by staunchly backing the invasion of
Iraq and making the unpopular decision to send non-combat troops there in
January 2004. That mission is expected to expire next month, but Bush indicated
before the trip that he wouldn't press his friend for a decision on whether to
extend it.
It is a sign of how highly regarded Koizumi is in the Bush White House that
Japan is the only country the United States has specifically supported for a
permanent seat on an expanded U.N. Security Council — something Tokyo badly
wants.
Another indication came from Mike Green, the White House's top Asia expert,
who told reporters in a pre-trip briefing that the president is "best friends"
with Koizumi. "I should say `close friends,'" Green said after a pause — but the
message was loud and clear.
The feeling is mutual. Though Bush is often greeted in foreign cities by
large, boisterous protests, only small demonstrations were expected in Japan.
There are problems, however. The country that traditionally has been American
ranchers' best customer banned U.S. beef two years ago after mad cow disease was
discovered in Washington state. Some members of Congress say the United States
should hit Japan back with trade sanctions.
Now, Japan's Food Safety Commission has approved a report that says the
health risks from American beef are little different than from Japanese — a move
that brings Japan a step closer to resuming U.S. beef imports.
U.S. officials are confident the matter is moving in the right direction,
though Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said "it's not going to
get worked out while we're there."
Under the troop realignment plan, Tokyo will get greater responsibility for
security in the Pacific and 7,000 Marines will go from Okinawa to the U.S.
Pacific territory of Guam over six years. The Futenma Marine Corps Air Station
on Okinawa would be closed and its functions moved to Camp Schwab, also on
Okinawa.
About half of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan are based on
Okinawa, and many locals who complain about crime and crowding are unhappy with
the agreement. But Bush seemed to brush aside those concerns, saying last week
that "it's hard to satisfy all the people all the time."
Ed Lincoln, senior fellow in Asia and economic studies at the Council on
Foreign Relations, said Bush is rewarding Koizumi by not being tougher on him to
end agricultural subsidies and to address the anger in other parts of Asia
generated when Koizumi visited a shrine in Tokyo closely associated with
pre-1945 militarism.
World Trade Organization talks to create a global trade accord have been
deadlocked over the demand that the United States, Europe and Japan cut farm
subsidies that make it hard for farmers in developing nations to compete.
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