Japan's new left-leaning Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday told President Barack Obama he would look for ways to support Afghanistan, holding out an olive branch in their first meeting. Obama also sought to start his relationship with Hatoyama on the right footing, calling the half-century US alliance with Japan a "cornerstone" of US diplomacy and saying he will visit in November.
Hatoyama in the past has criticised "US-led globalism" and called for "more equal" ties between the United States and Japan, with some left-leaning members of his coalition pushing for a cut in the 47,000-strong US troop presence.
Hatoyama has said he plans to end an Indian Ocean naval refuelling mission that supports the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan, one of Obama's key priorities.
While in opposition, his party briefly forced a halt to the naval mission through parliamentary manoeuvres, arguing that Japan - officially pacifist since World War II - should not abet "American wars." But Hatoyama told reporters after the summit that the relationship between Washington and Tokyo would be a "key pillar" of his foreign policy.
Japan "will seriously consider what we can do for the sake of Afghanistan as well as Japan and the United States" as a possible alternative to the refuelling mission, Hatoyama said.
"Japan wants to make a positive contribution in the field of our specialty . such as agricultural support or job training, which the Afghan people would be pleased to see," Hatoyama said. Obama stopped short of responding to Hatoyama's proposal, only saying he was "grateful" for his thoughts, according to a Japanese government official.
Obama sought common ground with Hatoyama by drawing implicit comparisions between their change-fuelled election races, congratulating him for running an "extraordinary campaign" and leading a "dramatic change" in Japan.
The US leader said he had "very good preliminary discussions about the critical importance of the US-Japanese alliance" in his talks with Hatoyama. Obama agreed to visit Japan in November, Japanese officials said, possibly as part of an expected Asian tour including stops in China and at Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Singapore.