WASHINGTON: A senior US official said Thursday that Washington is "rooting" for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, voicing hope that he lasts longer than his revolving-door predecessors.
Noda, Japan's sixth new prime minister since 2006, is pushing forward an unpopular tax hike in hopes of salvaging the economic power's finances and supports entering talks on a controversial US-backed Pacific trade pact.
"Prime Minister Noda is in a very tough fight on issues associated with the consumption tax and a variety of other issues. But I have to say, on some level, we're rooting for him," said Kurt Campbell, the top US diplomat on Asia.
"It is not simply because we think he is an able leader -- which we do. But it is also the case that you want to start to build up a track record with the leadership in Japan," Campbell said at the Stimson Center think-tank.
"What's difficult is, finally when you start to get the measure of the man or the person, that you then have a new leader with which to deal," he said.
Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, said that he and a senior Pentagon official would visit Japan in around 10 days for talks on issues including a long-running dispute about US troops in Okinawa.
US diplomats generally stay neutral in public about domestic politics in democratic allies. But the United States has had rocky relations with some members of Noda's Democratic Party of Japan, particularly former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Noda said in November that Japan would enter talks to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the United States hopes will form the basis of a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade pact, despite strong opposition from farmers.
Noda also faces opposition to raising the consumption tax, with critics saying the move could weaken an already shaky economy. But economists across the spectrum say Japan must raise more revenue to come to grips with a debt that stands at around 200 percent of GDP.
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