[MannoFr]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0091028a5.html
From news article:
WASHINGTON — The United States appears increasingly concerned about the new course of Japan's foreign policy, raising the specter of a showdown between Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and President Barack Obama at their summit in Tokyo next month.

At the center of the widening gap is the fate of the 2006 bilateral deal to reconfigure U.S. forces stationed in Japan, especially the relocation of the Futenma air base in Okinawa.

Among the Democratic Party of Japan's campaign pledges in the general election was transferring the airfield outside Okinawa or even outside Japan.

"This isn't a minor tiff. Mr. Hatoyama's grandstanding endangers the entire 2006 agreement," the Wall Street Journal said in an opinion piece on its Web site Monday.

"Mr. Hatoyama may feel that he's simply sticking to a campaign pledge to put more distance between Japan and the U.S. But it doesn't sound like he's thought much about the alternatives," it said.

Hatoyama has said the decision on where the air base will be transferred does not necessarily have to be made in time for Obama's planned Nov. 12-13 visit, despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' blunt call for a decision in line with the bilateral accord by then.