About 70 lawmakers, intellectuals and business leaders from Japan and the United States gathered Tuesday in Tokyo to discuss how to revitalize the bilateral relationship, which has been strained over the relocation of the Futenma military base in Okinawa since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in 2009.
The one-day New Shimoda Conference was aimed at reinvigorating bilateral exchanges that were activated by a series of high-level meetings between 1967 and 1994 as the Shimoda Conference. Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture, is where the two countries signed the treaty of amity and commerce in 1858.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said in her opening remarks that U.S. participants arrived "with a shared commitment to this nation and to revitalizing our long and successful alliance with each other."