The impasse about the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps air station at Futenma in Okinawa caused U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to cancel his forthcoming visit to Japan. So Rumsfeld, fed up with Japanese foot-dragging for more than a decade, will be going to China and South Korea, but not to Japan.
It's not only the bases issue that will be critical for the U.S.-Japan alliance. Japan will soon have to take key decisions about the "architecture" of missile defense.
Missile defense demands an instantaneous response after a missile launch has been detected. There is simply no time for the tortuous Japanese decision-making on display in relation to Futenma.