The Obama administration has shown great good will toward Japan. This was evidenced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony at her Senate confirmation hearing, her choice of Japan as the first country she visited after taking office and the fact that Prime Minister Taro Aso was the first foreign leader President Barack Obama met with after his inauguration.
This is an epoch-making development in Japan-U.S. relations attesting to the success of diplomacy on both sides. As a matter of fact, both Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Kurt Campbell have both made remarks emphasizing that these are proof of the importance the Obama administration attaches to Japan.
However, the Japanese media at that time mostly focused on reporting on then Minister of Finance Shoichi Nakagawa's embarrassing behavior at the Group of 20 meeting in Rome and failed to convey the United States' gesture of good will adequately to the public. In my opinion, the Japanese media have also demeaned themselves in this incident.