THE TENDENCY OF U.S. JAPANESE RELATIONS AFTER BUSH ASSUMING POWER

In this article,Lu made a judgement that the new American administration is going to follow a policy of “paying due attention on Japan”.Several factors formed the background for this policy:①There are differences in the policy thinking between Republicans and Democrats.The main difference is that the Republicans advocate political realism while the Democrats believe in idealism.②There appeared a new judgement of Japan's power and role,holding that “Japan is an utmost important partner in the regional security and political affairs”,that “a more prominent role to be played by Japan in regional and global economic,political and security affairs would be conformed to the interests of the U.S.government”.③The rifts created during the Clinton administration in U.S. Japanese relations have to be closed.④The Bush administrations diplomatic staff in charge of the Asia Pacific affairs has already been changed from“China watchers” to “Japan watchers”.Predicting U.S. Japanese relations in the near future,Lu maintains that the security cooperation between the two countries will reach a new stage,but U.S. Japanese economic frictions will hardly come to an end.The strengthening of U.S. Japan alliance will encourage Japan to get rid of “the aftermath of the WWII”,making it deviate from the road of peaceful development.The enhanced alliance will also have an impact on the rapprochement between the two Koreas and deteriorate Sino American and Sino Japanese relations.