Building a more mature and equal U.S.-Japan relationship

As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates winds down his January 2011 tour of Northeast Asia, Shorenstein APARC's Daniel C. Sneider suggests in Foreign Policy that the Obama administration and the Democratic Party of Japan now demonstrate better understanding of working together on improving regional security and finding a workable solution to the issue of U.S. bases on Okinawa than they did a year ago. Sneider, however, questions whether both sides can take the next step and take what they have learned so far and move forward to a more mature and . . . more equal relationship."