Caroline Kennedy Leaves Japan After Three Years as U.S. Ambassador
Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy receives bottles of wine as a farewell gift from Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
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Tokyo (AP) -- Caroline Kennedy is stepping down Wednesday after three years as U.S. ambassador to Japan, where she was welcomed like a celebrity and worked to deepen the U.S.-Japan relationship despite regular flare-ups over American military bases on the southern island of Okinawa.
She ruffled some feathers early on by tweeting her opposition to Japan's dolphin hunt, shortly after her embassy issued a statement expressing "disappointment" that Japan's leader had visited a shrine that memorializes World War II war criminals, among others.