If Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's prime minister elect, ever thought that managing relations with the US would be easy, he knows better now.
Even before Mr Hatoyama's appointment following his Democratic party's historic election victory, he has been forced to tackle unease among some in Washington fuelled by his stated dislike for “US-led globalisation”, his doubts about the dollar's future and his hopes for political integration with China.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Times, Kim Holmes, a former assistant secretary of state and vice-president of the conservative Heritage Foundation think-tank, said the “long era in US-Japanese relations characterised by a shared strategic vision and broad co-operation on security . . . may be over”.