Japan PM vows to pursue more equal ties with US

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TOKYO, Jan 4 (AFP): Japan's prime minister pledged Monday to pursue more equal relations with the United States as Tokyo seeks to defuse a row with its close ally over where to move an American military base.
"It's important to show that Japan and the United States are in a relationship in which we need each other," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a televised new year address.
Japan should avoid a situation where "we just give up what we want to say only because it's difficult, or where one simply obeys the other," he said.