By Ma Jie

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Japan on her first overseas trip as the chief US diplomat, heralding messages that Japan remained the key ally of the United States, while prompting Japan to deliberate on its role in the international community when its domestic politics is a mess.

Clinton's visit started from a visit to Tokyo's Meiji Shrine to pay respect to "Japan's tradition and culture", followed by a highlighted meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, a signing ceremony of a relocation agreement of US marines and a post-meeting joint press conference.

She also met with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada, families of abductees by Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), talked to university students and even the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Ichiro Ozawa in her taut one-day itinerary.

Alliance assured

Clinton's visit is able to erase Tokyo's bitter memories of former President Bill Clinton's nine-day visit to China bypassing Japan.

In blunt words, Clinton reaffirmed in Tokyo that "the alliance between the United States and Japan is a cornerstone of our foreign policy, as working together to deal with a multitude of issues not only in Asia and the whole world is the top priority of the Obama administration".

One of the significant agreements the two sides had reached was the inking of the relocation of US marines from Japan's Okinawa to Guam.

Under the accord, Japan will spend a total of 2.8 billion US dollars on "projects to develop facilities and infrastructure on Guam" for the relocation of some 8,000 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force personnel and their 9,000 family members from Okinawa by 2014.

"The agreement reflects a commitment to modernize our posture in Asia-pacific. It reinforces the core of our alliance, the mission to ensure defense of Japan against attack and to deter any attack by any necessary means," Clinton said.

She said that the two countries share contributions in realignment of forces and the relocation of marines from Okinawa to Guam, calling it "one more example of the strong and vibrant cooperation" the two sides enjoy.

But the alliance needs to come at the price of, or be cemented by, at the repeated request of the United States, Japan's increasing engagement in international affairs, including reconstruction of Afghanistan, anti-terrorism in Pakistan and combating pirates off Somalia. It remained uncertain if Japan will devote more efforts in such areas when itself was engulfed in the worst economic recession and domestic political turmoil.

Abduction issue 

For Tokyo, the abductees by the DPRK remained the top concern. In order to soothe Japanese anger over Bush's removal of DPRK from a terrorist blacklist last year before Pyongyang fully addressed the abduction issue, Clinton also met in person with some families of missing abductees to express her sympathy.

But Ramesh Thakur, founding director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs I Waterloo, Ontario of Canada wrote in his essay to Japan's Daily Yomiuri newspaper that Clinton is "unlikely to satisfy Tokyo on the emotional hot-button issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang," as "the US policy of engagement rather than confrontation with Pyongyang is likely to be maintained."