Japan PM vows to pursue more equal ties with US

Updated at: 1011 PST, Monday, January 04, 2010
TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama pledged Monday to pursue more equal relations with the United States as Tokyo seeks to defuse a row with its close ally over where to move an American military base.

"I want to create ties in which we can enhance our relations of trust by telling each other what each of us should say clearly," he said in a televised new year address.

"It's important to show that Japan and the United States are in a relationship in which we need each other." Japan should avoid a situation where "we just give up what we want to say only because it's difficult, or where one simply obeys the other," he said.