Japan confronts risks of U.S. alliance based on dollars and deals, not values

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence inspects PAC-3 missile interceptors with Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Japan February 7, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Eighteen months after Donald Trump became U.S. president and started shaking up global diplomacy, Japan is waking up to the risks of an alliance based on dollars and deals rather than shared values and security interests.

For decades, U.S. and Japanese leaders have stressed that the two countries' alliance was based on values such as democracy, freedom and the rule of law. One of Asia's oldest security relationships, it placed Japan under a U.S. defence umbrella.