U.S. needs to pay attention to Asia and shift in power

And, for his part, President Obama appeared more than willing to accommodate Japan. In fact, he quoted President Dwight Eisenhower as saying 50 years ago when the alliance was first inaugurated that it was “an indestructible partnership” based on “equality and mutual understanding.”

But it is apparent that over the last half century it has always been the United States leading and Japan following. A major reason for this was Tokyo's reliance on Washington for its security. Moreover, the economic relationship was extremely close, with the United States being Japan's biggest trading partner year in and year out. But that is beginning to change. China's emergence, and that of East Asia generally, has changed the situation on the ground.

For two years now, China has replaced the United States as Japan's biggest trading partner, and the trend looks set to continue. In the first six months of this year, China has become Japan's biggest trading partner in terms of both exports and imports, marking the first time that Japan's exports to China exceeded those to the United States. Even though Japanese exports to China fell 25.3% from the same period last year, those to the United States showed an even larger decline, thus propelling China into first place.

Of course, trade alone does not determine a country's relationship with other countries. Britain, for example, ranks sixth in terms of American trading partners, but the United Kingdom has always enjoyed a special relationship with America for reasons of language, history and culture. But the rise of East Asia as a whole means that Japan is now re-evaluating its future relationship with the United States.

During the election campaign, Mr. Hatoyama advocated the formation of an East Asian Community, without specifying which countries he had in mind for membership. In Singapore last weekend, he indicated that the United States was a potential member of such a regional grouping.

However, this is a far cry from the situation almost two decades ago when the Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad proposed an East Asia Economic Caucus, grouping the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries as well as China, Japan and South Korea, but without the United States. Japan refused to go along because of the exclusion of the U.S.

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