Abe to Ask Obama for Approval for Shale Gas Exports

Tokyo, Feb. 19 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to ask U.S. President Barack Obama for his country's approval for the start of shale gas exports to Japan when they meet later this week, informed sources said Tuesday. The Japanese leader will make the request as the country is striving to reduce power generation costs, which have been soaring due to the continued suspension of most of nuclear reactors in the nation following the severe accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the sources said. Abe will visit the United States for four days from Thursday, his first trip to the country since he took office in late December 2012. He is set to meet with Obama on Friday local time. Another key issue at the Abe-Obama meeting will be whether Japan will join Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. Abe hopes to announce in March at the earliest his government's decision on Japan's participation in the negotiations if he becomes sure that some items will be treated as exceptions to the TPP's basic principle of blanket tariff elimination. In this regard, attention should be paid to whether Abe, also head of the Liberal Democratic Party, can elicit an assuring comment from Obama, which would help him persuade TPP opponents in the LDP to reverse their stances against the pact, the sources said. At Tuesday's meeting of the House of Councillors Budget Committee, Abe said that he wants to confirm whether exceptions to the tariff elimination principle would be allowed in the TPP negotiations at the coming meeting with Obama. Amid the increasingly severe security situation in East Asia, Abe also hopes to demonstrate the resuscitation of the Japan-U.S. alliance, which was hurt under the previous Japanese administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan, the sources said. The Japanese and U.S. leaders will confirm their cooperation so that the U.N. Security Council will adopt a resolution on additional sanctions on North Korea following the reclusive country's third nuclear test last week, the sources said. They will also exchange views on China, which is accelerating military buildup and increasing maritime activities. Abe will tell Obama that Japan's Diet will enact bills on the country's entry into the so-called Hague treaty on rules on parental custody of children after the breakups of international marriages during the current ordinary session ending in June, the source said. Meanwhile, Abe and Obama are unlikely to hold in-depth talks on the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa. They will only reconfirm the two governments' agreement to transfer the base in the city of Ginowan to the Henoko coastal district in Nago, also Okinawa. The base relocation plan has been stalled due to strong local opposition. Many in Okinawa are calling for the Futenma base to be moved out of the prefecture. Abe will visit Arlington National Cemetery near Washington Friday morning before holding talks with Obama. Later on Friday, Abe will deliver a speech at a conference to be hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to discuss his economic policy, dubbed Abenomics, which features bold monetary easing and timely fiscal spending in order to help Japan overcome deflation. END