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 Behind that message, the conservative leader will want fresh
assurances that America will show up if needed in any clash with
China, conversations with politicians and experts show.
"America of course has been committed to and has interest in Asia,
but we would like it to turn its eyes even more to Asia, and build
up its influence toward China," Hajime Funada, head of a ruling
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) panel on revising Japan's pacifist
constitution, told Reuters in an interview.
"We have a sense of crisis that (Chinese President) Xi Jinping ...
is increasing China's hegemonic motivation."
Constrained by its pacifist constitution, Japan was for decades
criticized in the United States for free-riding on U.S. military
spending and using money that it would otherwise have used on its
own defense to fund its economic development.
Abe will stress in Washington that times have changed for the former
enemies, now the closest of allies. "Part of the message will be
that Japan will play a bigger role in security," said an official
involved in preparations for the trip.
 Attention to Abe's handling of Japan's wartime past, still a touchy
topic for Asian neighbors 70 years after World War Two's end, could
overshadow his message on security. But Abe appears willing to take
the risk when he makes the first speech by a Japanese leader to a
joint session of Congress on April 29.
The speech will follow Abe's summit with U.S. President Barack Obama
the day before and the April 27 unveiling of the first update of
U.S.-Japan defense cooperation guidelines since 1997.
Those revisions, which reflect the biggest change in Japanese
security policy in decades, will expand the scope for Japan's roles
and missions around the world.
HISTORIC LANDMINES
Abe's speech coincides with pressure from critics to erase concerns
that he wants to whitewash Japan's wartime past, at the same time
his conservative domestic allies feel that after 70 years of
peaceful policies, fresh apologies are unneeded.
The Japanese official said that during his visit to America Abe
would reaffirm Tokyo's commitment to peace and to past government
expressions of remorse and apology over the war.
"There was a view that he might step on some landmines (about
history), but ... he thinks it is important to convince U.S. leaders
and politicians of the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance - that
Japan not only relies on the U.S. but is trying to become a
proactive player," said Keio University professor Toshihiro
Nakayama.
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"Because America backing down and not coming (to Japan's aid) is the
biggest threat."
Despite U.S. assurances over its commitment, worries persist in
Tokyo that one day Washington - overstretched elsewhere in the world
as it cuts military spending and linked closely economically to
China - may not come to Japan's defense, such as in a clash with
Beijing over disputed islets in the East China Sea.
A recent government briefing paper on the defense cooperation
guidelines revision said a key goal of the update was to reconfirm
America's "strong commitment" to the defense of Japan, according to
a copy obtained by Reuters.
In the most dramatic shift in security policy since Japan's military
was rebuilt after World War Two, Abe's cabinet last July adopted a
resolution reinterpreting the constitution's pacifist Article 9 to
allow Japan's armed forces to provide military aid to the United
States and other friendly countries under attack, exercising the
right to "collective self-defense".
The shift, to be enabled by legislation later this year, will allow
Japan's military to take actions such minesweeping during
hostilities in the Hormuz Strait in the Persian Gulf. It will also
allow logistics support for U.S. forces in conflicts beyond Japan's
immediate neighborhood without a specific law for each operation,
Japanese lawmakers and government sources said.
(Additional reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo and Kevin Krolicki; Editing
by Jeremy Laurence)
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