President Obama arrives in Japan today on the last stop of his ten-day Asia tour. Obama will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit amidst a dispute with the Japanese government over relocating the U.S. military base in Okinawa. Obama comes to Japan after South Korea, where he failed to finalize a long-stalled free trade deal. Before leaving Seoul, Obama defended last week’s $600 billion move by the Federal Reserve to buy up government bonds. Obama rejected critics’ claims the United States is waging a currency war by devaluing the dollar.

President Obama: “My simple point is to say that from everything I can see, this decision was not one designed to have an impact on the currency, on the dollar, it was designed to grow the economy. And there is some legitimate concern that we’ve had very low inflation, that a huge danger in the United States is deflation.”

As Obama defended U.S. monetary policy, he failed to win international backing in the U.S.-Chinese dispute over China’s currency. The U.S. has accused China of artificially manipulating the price of the yuan for economic gain. On the domestic front, President Obama said he remains opposed to Republican calls for extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. But he suggested he may compromise to ensure the cuts are preserved for those making less than $250,000.

President Obama: “With respect to the Bush tax cuts, what I’ve said is that I’m going to meet with both the Republican and Democratic leaders late next week, and we’re going to sit down and discuss how we move forward. My number one priority is making sure that we make the middle-class tax cuts permanent.”