Leaders Reaffirm U.S. Military Role in Japan

President Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, skirting the contentious trade issues that have divided their two countries for years, today declared the U.S.-Japan security relationship to be the “cornerstone” of peace and prosperity in Asia.

Following a yearlong review of the U.S. military presence in Japan and the rest of northeast Asia, Clinton asserted that the United States will retain its current level of 100,000 troops in the region, including about 47,000 in Japan.

These figures are important because many observers in Japan and the United States have questioned the need for the U.S. to deploy that many troops in Asia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Clinton acknowledged that U.S. troops in Japan will be redeployed to fewer and smaller bases and said that intrusive training activities will be curtailed to address Japanese sensitivities about American forces here. The U.S. troop presence has been hugely controversial since the rape in September of a 12-year-old Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa that involved three U.S. servicemen.

At a joint appearance with Hashimoto today, Clinton said the purpose of his visit to Tokyo was “to celebrate the extraordinary partnership between our two nations over the past 50 years and to strengthen our alliance to meet the demands of this exceptional age.”

Clinton and Hashimoto, in a joint declaration issued earlier today, called the U.S.-Japan security pact necessary “for maintaining a stable and prosperous environment for the Asia-Pacific region as we enter the 21st century.”

They pledged closer cooperation on development of military technology, and Japan promised to provide $5 billion a year in support for the U.S. forces stationed in Japan.

The joint declaration on military cooperation between the two nations, however, is arousing mixed feelings in Japan, where a devastating wartime defeat has instilled a deep sense of pacifism.

Although both governments stressed that Japan’s increased cooperation would take place within the bounds of its antiwar constitution, there is a palpable sense of uneasiness among some here that this could be the first step down a slippery slope toward military adventurism.

Critics fear that an agreement signed by both nations Monday to allow Japan to supply transport, services and even weapons parts to U.S. forces during joint training exercises could lead to Japan’s participation in collective defense--and eventually its involvement in actual combat operations. Both activities are barred by Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Although the primary audiences for the two leaders’ statements are the Japanese and American publics, there is a strong implicit message to China and North Korea as well: The United States and Japan together will ensure that any aggression by either of those nations will be met by a strong U.S. military response backed by Japan.

The declaration includes “a tacit acknowledgment that Japan is now a major global power,” a senior Clinton administration official said. “This relationship is the key to the security of the whole region.”

Clinton arrived here Tuesday after a stopover in South Korea, where he and President Kim Young Sam announced a new initiative to try to defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula and bring a lasting peace between the two Koreas.

The two-day Japanese visit promises no such new proposals; it was designed chiefly to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Japan’s security and to address Japanese public concerns about the role of U.S. troops here.

In that regard, many in the Japanese and American governments consider last year’s shocking rape in Okinawa to have given crucial impetus to a long-overdue review of the bilateral security relationship. The two nations were forced to confront at the most fundamental level the reason why the United States continues to give military protection to a nation that can surely afford to provide for its own security.

The United States has its own reasons for wanting to deploy large forces in the Pacific: as a counterbalance to China and a deterrent to North Korea or other potential aggressors.

National Security Advisor Anthony Lake said Clinton would, in word and deed, make the case directly to the Japanese people about the importance of the security alliance.

“There are those in Japan who would argue that the Japanese are doing us a favor by allowing us to station troops here, and there are those in the United States who argue that we are doing the Japanese a favor,” Lake said aboard Air Force One flying from South Korea to Tokyo on Tuesday. “The president will argue that this is in both of our interests.”

By mutual agreement, lingering trade disputes were left in the closet, to be addressed at other times and in other forums. Washington and Tokyo remain at an impasse in talks aimed at opening the Japanese market to American photographic film, semiconductors and insurance products as well as a broad range of other goods and services.

Laura D’Andrea Tyson, chief of the National Economic Council, said that Clinton and Hashimoto would express their resolve to solve these issues but that she expects no progress on them.

“There will not be an economic rabbit coming out of the hat at this summit,” Tyson said.

Clinton began his visit here with a casual dinner with Hashimoto on Tuesday night, during which the Japanese leader presented the president with a baseball glove and an autographed baseball from a national icon who happens to earn his living in Los Angeles--Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo.

The two leaders and their wives then sat down to a meal of snapping turtle soup, tuna sushi, fried sea bream and scallops, roast duck with foie gras, fruit and pastries.

Times staff writer Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.