Clinton seeks answer to sticky dispute with Japan

[Jazzy]

HONOLULU -Leaping into a deepening dispute with a longtime Asian ally, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is meeting with her Japanese counterpart to discuss the future of a U.S. Marine air field and, more broadly, the U.S.-Japan security alliance.

Clinton on Tuesday was also delivering a speech designed to clarify the Obama administration's views on modernizing the groupings of Asian and Pacific nations in ways that would enhance their cooperation on a wide range of issues, including regional security, trade and the environment.

For decades the main U.S. ties to the Asia-Pacific region have been through security and trade agreements with individual countries, such as the 50-year-old security treaty with Japan that allows the basing of U.S. forces on Japanese territory.

The case of Futenma air station, on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has become particularly sensitive. That it must be moved is not in dispute — the two countries signed a deal in 2006 to relocate it on the island. The problem is where to put it. And the U.S. position is that it cannot be shut down until a replacement is established elsewhere on Okinawa — an idea most Okinawans oppose.

A new left-leaning Japanese government that took office in September is reassessing the U.S.-Japan alliance.

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