David Larter, Navy Times
The insurgent candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have sent shock waves through Japan, with mounting concern that their most powerful ally could pull back from the region while China flexes its growing military.
Current and former Japanese officials said the contentious presidential primaries have been interpreted as the American people seeking to pull back from global leadership. They pushed back against Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump's suggestion that Japan does not contribute enough to the security relationship.
"There has been some change, some structure change in the thinking of U.S. people," said Satoshi Morimoto, Japan's former defense minister, through a translator. "I think with Mr. Trump's supporters there is a commonality between them that they don't think the U.S. should bear the burden alone, they no longer want to be the world's policeman."
Morimoto rejected the notion that the U.S. security arrangement with Japan was unfair, saying that his country contributes nearly $40,000 per U.S. service member stationed there, nearly $1.7 billion per year. But he added that the skepticism among both Sanders and Trump's supporters should be taken seriously and that allies may need to contribute more.
"The U.S. cannot do everything on its own ... and so allies should step up their forces," Morimoto said. "We wish the U.S. to take leadership, but we do need to cooperate. We wish to uphold values based on international laws ... and in order to protect that we need to contribute."
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