Japan's ruling establishment hoped that John McCain, surrounded by "friends of Japan," would win the race to the White House. Conservative commentators fear that President-elect Barack Obama will neglect Japan while paying too much attention to China.
These concerns are unfounded. There is no evidence that the Japan-U.S. alliance fares better under Republicans than Democrats. Although there are real reasons for Tokyo to worry about relations with the United States, they are different from the apprehension about "panda-huggers" taking America away from Japan. The cause for alarm is the global recession, not the switch of the party in power in Washington.
Barack Obama will not assume the presidency until Jan. 20. We cannot predict the exact nature of the economic situation he will face, but we know it will be very bad. We can also already see fault lines developing over the handling of the global recession.