Twenty-six percent (26%) of Americans say the United States should remove all its military troops from Japan, a central issue in President Obama’s trip to that country Friday and Saturday.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% disagree and oppose the removal of all U.S. troops from Japan. Twenty-five percent (25%) are not sure.

The United States still has 47,000 troops based in Japan, many on the island of Okinawa, and friction between Americans and local residents have been growing in recent years. But the president in his visit to Tokyo held firm to a previously negotiated plan to maintain the troops there, saying the two countries have a shared commitment to "the defense of Japan with minimal intrusion on the lives of the people who share this space."

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Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Americans rate U.S. relations with Japan as at least somewhat important. Forty percent (40%) say that relationship is very important.

Just 16% of adults say America’s relationship with its former World War II enemy is not very or not at all important.

Unlike most other issues surveyed by Rasmussen Reports, there is little partisan disagreement on the importance of U.S.-Japanese relations.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans say Japan is an ally of the United States. Only 10% view the country as an enemy, while 24% think of it as somewhere in between an ally and an enemy.

Forty-six percent (46%) believe America should help Japan militarily if it comes under attack, but 41% disagree.

Forty-nine percent (49%) say they have followed news reports about the president’s trip to Asia at least somewhat closely, but only 18% who are following very closely.

The president’s eight-day trip which began Thursday includes stopovers in Singapore for meetings with Asian leaders, Beijing and Seoul, South Korea.

Forty-two percent (42%) of voters say the president’s performance in the area of national security is good or excellent, roughly comparable to where these numbers have been since the end of August. Nearly as many (39%) say Obama’s handling of national security is poor.

As part of his effort to improve America’s international standing, the president has spoken of the world as a community of nations with more in common than divides us. But just 32% of voters agree with the idea that the world is a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interest.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) now say it would be better for our allies to do what America wants rather than vice versa. Only 12% say it would be better for America to do what its allies want.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the U.S. military.

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