For anyone that thinks that the US government’s tilt towards Japan is driven solely by Washington’s desire to contain China, here is a link that shows that Tokyo & Washington’s relationship is much deeper than geo-politics in northeast Asia:

Japan has pledged US $29 million to the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) efforts to boost rural development and the disarmament of thousands of illegal armed groups in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

UNDP’s office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, said $23 million of the contribution announced on Thursday would be used to support rural development projects in the provinces of Bamiyan, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar in conjunction with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development(MRRD). The remaining $6 million would be used to support the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme.

Anita Nirody, UNDP’s country director for Afghanistan, said an estimated 2,000 illegal armed groups were involved in activities designed to destabilise the government and hurt the international community¿s ability to deliver much needed practical support to residents.

Nirody said the Japanese government’s very generous contribution was essential to the DIAG process. (…)

The $29 million was part of the $60 million pledged by Japan during a Tokyo conference on Afghanistan in July. Representatives from 53 countries and 15 international organisations attended the event. Japan has been one of post-conflict Afghanistan’s major sponsors.

Major John has more here on Japan’s contributions in Afghanistan.

The US is looking for allies in the future that deliver more than words or 3,000 soldiers cooped up on a base making toilet seats and Japan is showing a willingness to step up and fill that void. Japan due to constitutional constraints cannot do much militarily in support of the US (though this could change in the near future), but they are using their money and political power to aid the US from everything from Afghanistan, deploying troops to Iraq, and taking a leading role in containing North Korea.

This close relationship also has allowed Japan to successfully broker a deal with Washington over the sensitive issue of the US Marine presence on Okinawa. Notice how this issue was handled compared to the war time control and camp consolidation issue on the Korean peninsula. Activist groups on Okinawa protested the US Marine presence, but didn’t do a Braveheart style assault on a US military installation or attack individual US Marines like in Korea. The Japanese government didn’t encourage and finance anti-US hate groups or political leaders publicly make statements encouraging anti-Americanism, like in Korea. I could go on and on but I think everyone gets the point. All the theatrics by the Korean government and their anti-US hate groups destroyed any relationship of mutual trust that existed between the ROK and US sides, while in Japan the government built a relationship of mutual trust and negotiated competently and received a security deal favorable to their long term interests. What has all the theatrics from the Korean side gained them? An overly belligerent North Korea, a revitalized Japan, a sagging economy, and Yankee with one foot out the door leaving Korea with a huge security vacuum their not going to be able to fill by 2009 even with a massive tax increase.

The world changed and Japan reevaluated their interests to change with it and be a country that matters, the world changed and Korea thought it was still 1985.