(snip) The article doesn't really delve into what the Koreans think about all this, but they'll probably get on board rather than be left out if it looks like the China-Japan relationship is starting the jell. China is already Japan's biggest trading partner. Both Japan and Korea need to end the American occupation of their respective countries and focus on building regional ties and coalitions independent of Washington. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/25/us-korea-north-power-idUSTRE7BO02I20111225
It is unlikely that Japan and South Korea request the US to leave any time soon, from their POV China's potential threat of regional dominance still far outweight whatever dissatisfication with the US forces in their country. still, from the USA's geopoliical interest, it wants to contain but not actually fight China, thus it is also in their interest that trade relationship warms between China and their neighbors .
I think that in Japan the main support for the bases comes from the top, the leadership of the foreign ministry and LDP style politicos of certain age for whom the "Japanese American Relationship" has always been paramount and who can't conceive of life without it. On the street the Japanese feeling about the American occupation of their country is and has been somewhat more ambiguous to say the least. Over the years the people of Okinawa have repeatedly protested the American presence on their land. Hatoyama received a huge amount of popular support nationwide when he promised to reduce or end the American occupation of Okinawa and to review the occupation treaty generally. Unfortunately as Prime Minister he turned out to be a bit of a disappointment in many ways, his failure to follow through in this area being one of them. My thinking is that Japan's American masters got to him. We do have methods of dealing with recalcitrant foreign politicians, but that is strictly opinion. In a more general sense there has always been a strong popular feeling against the occupation and a dissatisfaction with its heavy handed methods in particular its nuclear policy. There is also a questioning of the price. Far from getting a "free ride" Japanese tax payers contribute heavily to the cost of their being America's land-based aircraft carrier in the far East, conservatively $4 billion a year plus incidentals like the cost of relocating American troops and contributing to the construction of new bases. This is over half the cost of the total bill. http://closethebase.org/us-military-bases/japan/ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/usfj.htm http://www.japan-press.co.jp/modules/news/index.php?id=1377
It's the fairly class example of say... building a power plant or a waste dump / incinerator, NO ONE wants it build next to their houses, but if it's not built at all everyone will be even more mad.
On a tangent here but... what would you say the average Japanese citizen thinks of the occupation of the Northern islands by Russia? It's been what, 65+ years now hasn't it? It's odd to me that this hadn't been resolved decades ago. I'm curious since I know little of the specifics involved.
They don't like it, and distrust and dislike of Russia, whether imperial, Soviet, or in its present incarnation has tended to run deep. But my opinion is that compared to some of the feelings about our occupation of Japan proper the reclaiming the northern islands is more of a matter of pride and principle. There are repatriation and fishing issues but I think that for most people they pale in comparison to what's going on at home and especially in Okinawa. Also, the northern islands issue between Japan and Russia has a convoluted history going back the the mid 19th Century and there is something to be said for each side. It's more than just a matter of a victor grabbing some spoils up in the wake of Japan's defeat in the Pacific War.
When the Russian advisors and so on swarmed into Vietnam after the fall of Saigon they weren't very popular either. The Vietnamese called them "Americans without money."
