Japan's new leader reassures Obama

TOKYO — Japan's incoming leader said Thursday he told President Barack Obama that the two countries' security alliance is the "foundation" of his country's foreign relations, an apparent attempt to ease concerns his new government may try to distance itself from Washington.

Yukio Hatoyama, whose party won a resounding victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, and Obama spoke by telephone for about 12 minutes, Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan said on its Web site. The White House confirmed the call took place, but did not immediately release details.

"The Japan-U.S. alliance is the foundation," Hatoyama said he told Obama during the conversation, adding he "wants to build constructive, forward-looking Japan-U.S. relations."

His comments to reporters after the call were shown on national broadcaster NHK.

The White House said in a statement that Obama expressed his "strong wish to work with Mr. Hatoyama and the Japanese government." Obama mentioned cooperation on economic recovery, combatting climate change, denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, anti-terroristm and building peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hatoyama, a Stanford University Ph.D and grandson of a prime minister, has called for Japan and the U.S. to pursue a more equitable relationship and said Tokyo should strengthen ties with its Asian neighbors. That has raised concerns a rift could develop between the allies.

The Democratic Party, which trounced the incumbent Liberal Democratic Party, is expected to form a new government and name Hatoyama, the party's president, as prime minister on Sept. 16, replacing Taro Aso. Under the long-ruling LDP, Japan has pursued close economic and security relations with the U.S., which has 50,000 troops stationed in the country under a mutual security treaty.

Unease about Hatoyama's views of the U.S. has been spurred by an op-ed published in The New York Times ahead of Sunday's election, in which he suggested that Japan had suffered under U.S.-led globalization.

He has tried to distance himself from the controversy, however, saying in comments broadcast Tuesday on Japanese television that what he wrote "was in no way an expression of anti-U.S. views."

In his op-ed article, Hatoyama also said that he was in favor of an "East Asian community," though also wrote that Japan's security pact with the U.S. will continue to form the "cornerstone of Japanese diplomatic policy.