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Closer cooperation among Japan, the United States and China is seen as essential for security worldwide not just in Asia. But is that possible with Japan and China at loggerheads over issues linked to history like Yasukuni Shrine?
While increasingly worried about tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, the United States remains too preoccupied with the Middle East to devote enough attention to Asia and may even become more divided and inward-looking as it heads for the 2008 presidential election.