Tokyo Drift

A perception that Japan’s new government is distancing itself from the United States.

The Times’s Helene Cooper recently observed:

President Obama will arrive in Tokyo on Friday, at a time when America’s relations with Japan are at their most contentious since the trade wars of the 1990s – and back then, the fights were over luxury cars and semiconductors, not over whether the two countries should re-examine their half-century-old strategic relationship.

Commenting on Mr. Obama’s visit, Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao argued:

He’s trying to prevent what some are calling the “Tokyo drift,” which is a concern that Hatoyama and the newly elected government in Japan is moving towards a policy that is more independent of the US and away from the strategic alliance they have had for decades.

However, Bloomberg’s William Pesek sounded a note of caution:

Don’t believe the hype. The theory that Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan is blowing off the U.S. is as fanciful as it is wrong. Those losing sleep over the state of this vital economic and security relationship aren’t thinking through how much Hatoyama needs Barack Obama, and vice versa.

The U.S.–Japan dynamic is indeed changing. Yet think of it more as evolution than confrontation. This story is about more than Tokyo and Washington. It’s about the rise of China and a vibrant region amid deepening U.S. troubles.