Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, faces his first diplomatic test this week when he meets President Barack Obama in New York as the two allies grapple with disagreements that investors fear could damage ties, Reuters reported.
Hatoyama will also seek a high profile for Japan at a U.N. climate change conference by pledging ambitious targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and offering more environmental help to developing nations.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which trounced its long-dominant conservative rival in an August election, has vowed to forge a more equal partnership with Washington, setting goals such as revising deals on U.S. forces based in Japan.
The untested government confronts the challenge of finding ways to agree on these issues quickly and without alienating Japan's biggest ally or the DPJ's pacifist coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party.
Hatoyama meets Obama on Wednesday on the sidelines of a U.N. General Assembly meeting.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said last week he wanted to resolve a row over how to ease the burden of U.S. military bases on Japan's southern island of Okinawa within the first 100 days of the new administration.
Although Washington appears to have softened an earlier refusal to consider changes to a roadmap dealing with U.S. forces on Okinawa, some analysts say Japan's Democrats may have bitten off more than they can chew.
"Japan and the U.S. have been negotiating about the Okinawa bases for more than 13 years, so I do not think they can so quickly conclude any new kind of agreement," said Chris Hughes, a Japan expert at the University of Warwick in Britain. "I think any negotiations are going to be very long and hard."
Under an existing deal, a U.S. Marine base would be moved from a town in Okinawa to a less populated part of the island. Hatoyama has said the base should be moved off Okinawa completely, although he has not proposed an alternative location.
It is disagreements such as those that concern investors. A Reuters survey of 33 financial market traders and analysts last month showed a third saw strained ties with Washington as one of the key risks for Japan.
The U.S.-educated Hatoyama also raised eyebrows in Washington with a recent essay, published in English, in which he attacked the "unrestrained market fundamentalism" of U.S.-led globalization. He has since played down those comments.
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