日本首相周二将访白宫会晤奥巴马

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso will meet Tuesday with President Barrack Obama. He will be the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the new administration took office last month.

Japan has been getting a lot of attention from the newly inaugurated Obama administration. Just last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made Tokyo her first stop on a week-long tour of Asia. And now Prime Minister Taro Aso is headed to Washington to meet with the American president.

Most analysts believe the Obama-Aso summit is largely symbolic. There is a sense in Tokyo the White House will overlook Japan, in favor of improving relations with China.

Masaru Nishikawa, research fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs, explains the public's skepticism.

"Obama's administration is a little bit ignorant or probably they tend to ignore the Japanese and Japanese government. Obama is trying to restore some kind of interest and confidence of Japanese people. I think that is his aim, Nishikawa said."

There is a lot for the two leaders to discuss during their summit. Washington wants Japan to dispatch solders to the war in Afghanistan. There are also the stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. 

And both the United States and Japan have been badly hit by the global economic crisis. Tokyo announced recently that the economy here is in its worst shape since the end of the Second World War. 

Analyst Nishikawa says the world's two largest economies need each other now more than ever to cope with this recession.

"Now the ongoing crisis all over the world is not the problem, that one country can deal with, it is too big to solve by only one country, so probably need some cooperation, especially from Japan," said Nishikawa.

But the Obama-Aso partnership may not last long. Prime Minister Aso's approval rating has slipped to about 10 percent. It is widely believed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will lose its decades-long control to the opposition during upcoming parliamentary elections.  

No matter what the outcome of his trip to Washington, Mr. Aso looks set to be Japan's third consecutive prime minister to serve in office for less than one year.

日本首相周二将访白宫会晤奥巴马

日本首相麻生太郎星期二将会见美国总统奥巴马。他是美国新总统上个月就任以来第一位访问白宫的外国元首。

日本一直受到美国新上任的奥巴马政府的关注，就在几天前，国务卿希拉里.克林顿在她长达一个星期的亚洲之行中，把日本作为访问的第一站。目前，日本首相麻生太郎又要前往华盛顿去会见美国总统。

*象征意义？*

大多数分析人士认为，奥巴马和麻生太郎的首脑会谈大体上具有一种象征意义。东京有一种感觉，认为白宫会忽视日本，而代之以和中国改善关系。

日本国际事务研究院的学者西川胜解释了为什么公众会有这样的疑虑。

“奥巴马政府有一点点无知，也许他们故意忽视日本和日本政府。 奥巴马力图恢复日本民众的一些兴趣和信心，我觉得这是他的目的。”

*两国需要共同对付经济危机*

两位领导人的首脑会谈会涉及很多议题。华盛顿希望日本为阿富汗战争派遣自卫队员，另外还有旨在结束北韩核武器项目的六方会谈已陷入停顿。

美国和日本都受到了全球经济危机的严重打击。东京最近宣布，日本的经济状况是二战结束以来最糟糕的。分析人士西川胜说，为了应对目前的经济衰退，世界最大的两个经济体现在比以往任何时候都更需要对方。

“现在遍及世界各地仍在发展的经济危机，并非是一个国家就能应付的问题。这场经济危机来势凶猛，单凭一个国家根本无法招架，因此可能需要一些合作，特别是和日本合作。”

*麻生支持率低*

不过，奥巴马和麻生太郎的合作可能不会太长久。麻生首相的民众支持率仅占一成多一点。人们普遍认为，执政的自民党将会失去几十年的控制权，在即将举行的国会选举中败给反对党。

无论麻生访问华盛顿的结果如何，麻生首相看来必定是连续在宝座上待不到一年的第三位首相。

此文章由琥儿提供，佳禾外语进行整理。　

大连佳禾外语培训学校近期开班
课程名称 (点击查看更多班型)	试听	开课时间	班型	优惠价(元)	在线报名
N2级考前强化冲刺高分班		03-28	周六全天	960
N1级高分秘笈强化冲刺班		03-28	周日全天	1080