Abe's US visit reinforces a historic partnership

AS Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe concluded his historic visit to Washington - the first by a Japanese premier in nine years, and the first Japanese leader to address a joint meeting of the US Congress - it may be difficult to imagine that it was only five years ago when some officials and pundits in Washington considered saying their Sayonara to Japan.

Then Japan prime minister Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), calling for a review of Japan's ties with the United States, made it clear that he wanted to shift his country's focus from a more America-centric foreign policy to a more Asia-focused policy.

Infuriating American policymakers and lawmakers, Mr Hatoyama called for a "close and equal" Japan-US relationship, and insisted that Japan should not continue to be subservient to Washington. In addition to ending a Japanese refuelling mission in Afghanistan, which, he argued, violated Japan's pacifist constitution, he refused to commit himself to an earlier accord that was supposed to relocate the American Futenma Air Base to another part of Okinawa. He also seemed to be siding with those in his party that wanted the United States to move its military bases off the Okinawa islands altogether.