Japan will invite Obama on April 24 and 25 as a state guest, though the exact date of his arrival is not immediately known, Suga said at a news conference, indicating Obama may arrive in Japan on April 23.
Obama will be the first U.S. president to visit Japan as a state guest since Bill Clinton in April 1996. The trip is part of a four-nation Asian tour by Obama that will also take him to South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The two governments, however, are not considering issuing a joint statement or declaration after the summit, due partly to insufficient progress in bilateral consultations toward advancing the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, according to sources familiar with bilateral relations.
Instead, the two governments are planning to release a "fact sheet" outlining areas of bilateral cooperation such as cybersecurity and space cooperation, the sources said.
Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Abe and Obama "will stress the role of the Japan-U.S. alliance as a contributor to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region."
Kishida said the two leaders "will affirm the strong Japan-U.S. alliance," and that he hopes they will announce further areas of specific cooperation.
Japan expects Abe and Obama to discuss various areas of bilateral cooperation including ways to promote TPP negotiations, Suga said, referring to trade liberalization talks involving 12 Pacific Rim economies including Japan and the United States.
During the visit, Obama will have an audience with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, and attend a dinner party at the Imperial Palace, according to Suga and Kishida.
The U.S. president plans to arrive in Tokyo by the early morning of April 24 at the latest, they said, adding the U.S. government is finalizing his itinerary.
Observers said Tokyo appears poised to reaffirm the solid alliance with Washington through Obama's trip, especially after Abe's visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in December and controversial remarks related to Japan's wartime history by the head of Japan's public broadcaster NHK and others drew concern among U.S. policymakers.
The Yasukuni visit, which angered China and South Korea as they regard it as a symbol of Japanese militarism, perplexed the United States.
In the planned summit, Abe and Obama are expected to affirm cooperation in bolstering trilateral cooperation with South Korea in dealing with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, as well as reducing burden on Okinawa Prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military bases in Japan.
The leaders are also likely to discuss how to cope with China's increased territorial claims in the East and South China seas, and Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Obama is expected to back the Abe government's efforts to resolve North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
Abe has explained that his visit to Yasukuni, a Tokyo Shinto shrine honoring more than 2.4 million the war dead along with 14 Class-A war criminals, was meant to be a way of pledging that Japan "must never wage a war again" based on "severe remorse for the past."
Citing Abe's visit to the shrine, China and South Korea accuse Japan of failing to atone fully for aggression before and during World War II.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
