The importance of Japan’s relations with America is only matched by its relationship with China.
The key question in Japan’s foreign policy since the Meiji revolution of 1968 has been how to balance Japan’s ties to Asia with its ties to the West.
In the post-Cold War period this has morphed into balancing the relationship with China and the US.
America is the indispensible ally, which provides for the defence of Japan and the security of the region.
China has become Japan’s major trading partner and the two economies are now interdependent.
America and Japan are fellow democracies and share many liberal values, whereas China and Japan share something of an East Asian identity.
The difficulty in balancing relations between China and the US is the divergence between the economic and security dimensions of the two relationships.
As China’s economic importance is growing at the relative expense of the US, the Provision of security by the United States is rising to counter growing Chinese military assertiveness and the provocations of North Korea (enabled by China).