Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepared to meet President Barack Obama on Friday, seeking to bolster his country's key alliance as a bulwark against China's territorial claims and North Korea's nuclear ambitions. "Abe wants to develop a good working relationship with Obama and he wants to show the Japanese people that he's on top of the situation," said Jeff Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus. "The U.S. wants to reaffirm that the alliance is strong, but they also don't want to go too far in ways that might be deemed provocative in Beijing. It's a real tightrope."