US President Barack Obama reaffirmed Washington's commitment to defend Japan if disputes over contested territories in the region should come to a head but urged Japan to seek peaceful dialogue on the issue.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Obama said he will make good his promise of fulfilling his security and economic pledges to Asia.

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Obama is on an eight-day, four-nation tour of Asia that began Wednesday in Japan, considered as a strong pillar of the United States' military strategy in the region.

The American leader's tour signals what is called the Asia Pivot, a rebalance of forces toward Asia, amid the rising tension from overlapping claims on islands in the East and South China Seas.

Political observers were closely watching if Obama would set a red line over China's nine-dash-line claims over the China Sea territories just as he set a red line on Syria's chemical weapons in September.

But it was not to be.

"The treaty between the US and Japan preceded my birth, so obviously this isn't the red line that I'm drawing," Obama told the press in Tokyo.

Obama, ahead of his arrival, said the treaty it has with Japan, does not apply to the chain of islands being claimed by both Japan and China. He, however said the US will come to Japan's succor if attacked.

Reports quoted China as saying that it has "indisputable sovereignty" over the islands and that the mutual defense treaty between US and Japan should not harm China's territorial right.

Political analysts said that although the US has been focusing its attention and resources  on other world events, Obama will try to attend to Asia's security and economic needs, which include working on a stalled trans-Pacific trade agreement and finalizing a deal which will increase American presence in the Philippines.

Reports said the Ukraine-Russia standoff is taking Obama's time and energy that his Asian trip may not be as fruitful as Asian leaders expect.

Reports added that he may levy another round of economic sanctions on Moscow, a step that will signal the end of international agreement aimed at defusing the crisis.

Obama's Asian trip includes stops in Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines. He  cancelled his Asian trip last year due to pressing domestic concerns, most notably the Federal government shutdown.

The cancellation of last year's trip worried leaders in the region who saw that the much-hyped about US pivot in Asia was taking the back burner to other foreign and domestic issues.