FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2011, file photo, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, is guided by Natori city mayor Ichijuro Sasaki to offer a bouquet of flowers for the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan. It’s up to Biden to show the U.S. effort to realign its gaze to the East hasn’t fizzled out. When he arrives Dec. 2, 2013, in Tokyo on a weeklong trip to Asia, he’ll step into a region that’s carefully watching to see how committed he and President Barack Obama are to increasing America’s influence in Asia, as a hedge against China and its increasing assertiveness. Huddling with foreign leaders in Japan, China and South Korea, Biden will seek to show that despite focusing intensely on Mideast flare-ups and a host of domestic distractions, the U.S. still intends to be a Pacific power. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)