DPJ seeking alliance of equals with U.S.

The Democratic Party of Japan, which has a good chance of winning power in this year's election, will seek an alliance with the United States that is less subordinate than that of the last 50 years, a senior DPJ lawmaker said.

"We want to move away from U.S. dependency to a more equal alliance," DPJ Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama said in a recent interview in Tokyo. "We've followed the U.S. subserviently in the past."

The DPJ, which has never been in power, is poised to oust the Liberal Democratic Party from its almost unbroken half-century of control. Party head Ichiro Ozawa has called for a more assertive foreign policy and unsuccessfully opposed the use of Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels for refueling aid in the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan.