WASHINGTON (Kyodo) A former top U.S. intelligence official has called for a "normal" Japan-U.S. alliance, urging Tokyo to reinterpret the war-renouncing Constitution to bring more balance to the relationship.
In a recent interview, former National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair was critical of the current security alliance under which the United States "would do all of the military work and Japan would simply pay . . . host-nation support and provide some bases."
While noting that the Japan-U.S. relationship has been "the linchpin for both countries," Blair said the existing security alliance arrangement may have been "OK in 1955, but it's not OK in 2011."