Posted by Tadashi Yamamoto on November 11, 2009. Filed under Special Report: President Obama's November 2009 Trip to Asia , Japan, United States.

This post is by Tadashi Yamamoto, President of the Japan Center for International Exchange.

When the Nobel Prize Committee announced it would award this year’s Peace Prize to President Obama, the Japanese media showed none of the critical reaction of their American counterparts. Instead, they applauded this and interpreted it as a vote of support for his proposal to create a nuclear-free world, a vision that is heartily embraced in the country that is home to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At a time of historic political change in both Japan and the United States, this reaction is highly encouraging, and it gives us a sense of the types of new partnerships that the two countries should be pursuing.

As somebody who has been active in Japan-U.S. relations for more than four decades, it feels that the bilateral relationship has become stale in recent years. Bilateral dialogue is now dominated by narrow military issues such as base relocations or the Indian Ocean refueling operation, and we seem to have lost sight of the greater potential for Japan-U.S. partnership. In fact, it appears clear that no matter how much progress is made on basing issues and the like, they will continue to remain a source of frustration on both sides for years to come. With a new government in Japan, it is fast becoming obvious that a bilateral relationship that rests mainly on the pillar of military cooperation—no matter how essential that is—lacks resiliency. In fact, with the power of bureaucrats in decline, public support is likely to play an increasingly in Japanese foreign policy, and sustaining this will require expanding U.S.-Japan partnership into new areas.

That is why I sincerely hope that President Obama’s inaugural visit to Japan will be the first step in a process of redefining and revitalizing Japan-U.S. relations. One major thrust of his discussions with Prime Minister Hatoyama should be on how to revitalize Japan-U.S. partnership on more nontraditional issues outside of the realm of hard security and economics, such as global health, development aid, climate change, and, yes, how to move towards a world where we are no longer threatened by the menace of nuclear weapons. These are areas where the United States and Japan are natural partners and should be making greater joint regional and global contributions. For example, there is much that they can be doing to lead the other G-8 countries in terms of improving health systems and battling deadly communicable diseases in the developing world, but the two countries hardly know how to talk to one another on this issue.

A second thing that Hatoyama and Obama would be well advised to focus on is strengthening the nongovernmental infrastructure of U.S.-Japan relations, especially the two countries’ capacity to carry out substantive and meaningful policy dialogue and exchange. The level of policy dialogue between American and Japanese think tanks has dropped precipitously, and the effects have been apparent in the misperceptions that have arisen in Washington about the new DPJ government. Meanwhile, interactions between policy makers and experts in the two countries—especially those outside of the administrative branches—have declined dramatically. For example, in the 1990s, eighty to ninety Congressional members would annually visit Japan for discussions with their Japanese counterparts, but those visiting in recent years number in the single digits. The stagnation of policy dialogue and exchange has numerous causes, starting with the structural weakness of think tanks and exchange organization dealing with Japan-U.S. relations, especially on the Japanese side where they are on a downward slide; the diminishing funding for policy dialogue and exchange that has helped lead to these institutions’ weakness; and an accumulated frustration that dialogue is not translating into meaningful action. These trends need to reverse, or else the two countries are bound to drift farther apart.

These two tasks, strengthening Japan-U.S. partnership in nontraditional areas and revitalizing policy dialogue, are intimately connected. Greater focus on expanding our partnership will help energize policy dialogue and make it more meaningful, and greater policy dialogue should pave the way for progress on Japan-US partnership in new areas. And, ultimately, these are both linked to the goal of building broader public support in Japan for the bilateral relationship. If Obama and Hatoyama can lay the foundations for progress on these two tasks, this initial visit can be judged a success.