Hatoyama assures U.S. senator Futemma issue will be resolved in May+

TOKYO, Jan. 15 Kyodo -
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said Friday he was assured by Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama that the relocation issue involving a U.S. Marines airfield in Okinawa
Prefecture will be resolved in May.

After speaking with Hatoyama for about half an hour at the prime minister's
office in Tokyo, the visiting Democrat from Hawaii said the meeting was most
encouraging and he can go back to Washington to give ''a very positive
report.''
''As I told the prime minister, the American delegation was most encouraged by
his assurance that the Futemma matter would be resolved in May,'' Inouye,
chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters after the
meeting.
At the outset of the talks, Hatoyama told Inouye that the Japanese government
intends to find a solution that would be acceptable to both Tokyo and
Washington, noting that Japan-U.S. relations are the most important bilateral
ties for his country.
''We want to deepen the Japan-U.S. alliance in a way that would make it capable
of contributing more to the world,'' Hatoyama said during the meeting before
reporters were whisked out.
The visit by the long-serving Japanese-American senator comes at a time when
bilateral ties are under strain, as Hatoyama's four-month-old government is
exploring the possibility of moving the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station
outside the prefecture or even abroad.
Inouye also met with Sadakazu Tanigaki, president of the main opposition
Liberal Democratic Party, on Friday and the two agreed that the current plan to
move the Futemma facility to the city of Nago in a less populated part of
Okinawa should be respected, according to Tanigaki.
The senator stressed during the meeting that if there is a big change to the
U.S. forces in Okinawa, it will have a great impact on other countries in the
region, he said.
Hatoyama said later in the day that the outcome of the Nago mayoral election,
which will be held on Jan. 24, could affect the government's efforts to resolve
the relocation issue.
''I don't intend to say it (the election) will have nothing to do with it at
all,'' he told reporters, saying he aims to reach a conclusion on the matter as
quickly as possible, while weighing the feelings of the city's residents.
Under a 2006 bilateral deal, the heliport functions of the Futemma facility are
to be moved to an airfield to be built in Nago by 2014.
But Hatoyama has delayed deciding on the relocation issue since his Democratic
Party of Japan grabbed power from the LDP, saying that his government would
reach a conclusion no later than May.
The Social Democratic Party, a minor coalition partner, maintains that the
facility should be moved out of Okinawa to ease the burden on its residents,
who shoulder the bulk of U.S. forces in the country.
The Futemma relocation is part of a broader agreement on the reconfiguration of
U.S. forces in Japan and is tied to the transfer of about 8,000 Marines from
Okinawa to Guam by 2014.
==Kyodo
2010-01-15 23:25:44


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