But at every turn of his address, Mr. Obama projected a more conciliatory America, which is trying to break from the past. On Myanmar, for example, he pledged that he would “be the first American leader to meet with all 10 Asean leaders.” Mr. Obama will be at the table in Singapore on Sunday with the leaders of Myanmar and the other countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, an economic group.  And while Mr. Obama spoke at length about human rights, he never connected the pursuit of such rights specifically to China and Tibet, where Beijing-backed authorities have clamped down on religious freedom. Instead, Mr. Obama, clearly seeking to avoid alienating Beijing on the eve of his inaugural visit to China, struck broader themes, saying that “supporting human rights provides lasting security that cannot be purchased any other way.”  As he has on many of his trips abroad, Mr. Obama painted a picture of an America willing to learn from its mistakes. In particular, he said, the United States and Asia must grow out of the imbalance of American consumerism and Asian reliance on the United States as an export market, a cycle he called imbalanced.  “One of the important lessons this recession has taught us is the limits of depending primarily on American consumers and Asian exports to drive growth,” he said. “We have now reached one of those rare inflection points in history where we have the opportunity to take a different path.”  Mr. Obama seemed to speak directly to the new Japanese government’s efforts to build a tighter Asian economic sphere, and used his own history to deliver the message: Don’t exclude the United States.  “My own life is part of that story,” he said. “I am an American president who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a boy. My sister Maya was born in Jakarta and later married a Chinese-Canadian. My mother spent nearly a decade working in the villages of Southeast Asia, helping women buy a sewing machine or an education that might give them a foothold in the world economy.”  “So,” he added, “the Pacific rim has helped shape my view of the world.” He even spoke of his first trip to Japan as a boy—“As a child, I was more focused on the matcha ice cream,” he said.  That drew laughs from the audience, which gave him a standing ovation both before and after his speech.  A version of this article appears in print on November 14, 2009, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Is Not Threatened by the Success of China, Obama Tells the Japanese. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
President Obama said the United States would maintain close ties with traditional allies like Japan, but that it is not threatened by a rising China.