By Takehiko Kajita
     The United States appears increasingly concerned about the new course of Japan's foreign policy, raising the specter of a showdown between Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama at their summit in Tokyo next month.
     At the center of the widening gap between the allies is the fate of a 2006 bilateral deal to reconfigure U.S. forces stationed in Japan, especially the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture.
     Hatoyama came to power in September after his Democratic Party of Japan's sweeping victory in the Aug. 30 general election. Among the DPJ's campaign pledges 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 website 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 visit Nov. 12-13, despite U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates' blunt call for a decision in line with the bilateral accord by then.
     Differences among Japan's Cabinet members are compounding the issue. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said he does not ''think it's an option'' to move the facility out of Okinawa, while Mizuho Fukushima, minister in charge of consumer affairs and falling birthrate issues, insisted the base be transferred outside the prefecture.
     While understanding the heavy burden borne by Okinawa, host of the majority of U.S. troops in Japan, the United States wants the Futemma base to be moved within Okinawa by 2014 as agreed. Failure to do so would affect another key element of the agreement -- the transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
     Japanese diplomats in Washington are concerned about the Hatoyama government's handling of the issue, with one saying, ''It is only China and North Korea that feel happy if Japan and the United States don't get along well with each other.''
     The Futemma row is not the only issue hanging over the Japan-U.S. relationship. Tokyo has decided to halt its Indian Ocean refueling mission in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan. Okada also wants to discuss a no-first-use nuclear policy with the United States.
     Washington has been tolerant of the former, calling for an alternate Japanese contribution to stabilizing Afghanistan. Tokyo is working to craft a package of measures, primarily civilian-based ones, before Obama's visit.
     The latter is a more complex and divisive issue as a no-first-use nuclear policy is critical to maintaining the U.S. nuclear umbrella over Japan. The umbrella has long guaranteed Japan's security against potential enemies, ranging from the former Soviet Union to North Korea.
     U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen cast doubt on the idea of the no-first-use nuclear doctrine Okada advocates, saying it would ''dramatically reduce our flexibility.''
     In recent commentary, Carolyn Leddy, a former National Security Council director for counterproliferation strategy, criticized the Hatoyama government's ''increasing security-policy schizophrenia,'' including its pursuant of an East Asian community that might shut the United States out.
     ''Tokyo's position threatens to undermine the cornerstone of East Asian security: the U.S.-Japan alliance...The DPJ's ideas just don't make sense,'' she said.
     Monday's Wall Street Journal piece called into question whether Tokyo is willing to spend more on its own defense, whether Hatoyama thinks the North Korean nuclear activity and growing Chinese military force are not serious enough to warrant a closer relationship with the United States, and whether he thinks diplomacy alone can keep Japan safe.
     ''These are the questions Japan's new prime minister needs to be asking, rather than putting on a kabuki show on defense,'' it said.
==Kyodo