Gov't eyes narrowing down base relocation sites by end of March+

OANA_NEWS



TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -
The government intends to narrow down possible relocation sites for the U.S.
Marines' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa and select a candidate site by the end
of next month, government sources said Tuesday.

With Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama committed to resolving the relocation issue
by the end of May, the government needs to set aside time to consult with the
United States and obtain acceptance from local governments in the area to be
selected as the relocation site, the sources said.
The government panel on the issue, chaired by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi
Hirano, aims to consider an alternative site for the Futemma base, while not
excluding an existing plan to relocate the base to Nago, a city in a less
populated part of Okinawa.
Panel members were originally scheduled to present their alternative plans to
the panel for consideration by the end of last month, but they are now expected
to do so during the first half of this month.
If it proves difficult for the panel to reduce the possible sites to just one,
it could produce a final report with multiple options, the sources said.
The government is expected to discuss the panel's conclusion at a ministerial
committee involving the heads of the three parties in the coalition government,
with Hatoyama expected to make the final decision.
It remains unclear, however, whether the United States would accept a Japanese
proposal by the end of May as anticipated by Tokyo.
On Tuesday evening, the panel held a meeting at the prime minister's office to
exchange opinions about a proposed visit by panel members to Guam -- the
Pacific island the Social Democratic Party, one of the junior coalition
partners in the government, has floated as an alternative to the Nago
relocation plan.
Earlier in the day, senior Japanese and U.S. officials gathered in Tokyo for
discussions aimed at deepening the bilateral alliance. The U.S. officials told
their Japanese counterparts that the existing agreement on the relocation is
the best plan.
''The United States was very clear in our presentation to the Japanese side
that we believe that the current plan was the best plan,'' Kurt Campbell, U.S.
assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told reporters
after the meeting.
But he also said the United States is ''in no way intransigent,'' noting that
his country is a ''partner'' in the process.
Asked about the impact the results of a mayoral election in Nago last month
would have on Japan's decision, Campbell only said, ''Local conditions come
into play, but these big decisions are at the level of our central
governments.''
A challenger opposing the current relocation plan won the election.
Meanwhile, a senior government official said Tuesday that the government is
mulling ''every possible option'' on the future of the Futemma base, including
keeping it at its current site despite the potential danger to local residents.
''Basically, we are considering every possible option with no conditions,
including one to continue using'' the base, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yorihisa Matsuno told a press conference in the morning.
Matsuno made the comments after Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada indicated the
previous day that the Futemma base may have to stay where it is if there is no
other option for relocating the site, a comment that sparked a barrage of
criticism from lawmakers in the ruling coalition.
''It is a problem that the foreign minister has shown a different stance from
that of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama,'' Yasumasa Shigeno, secretary general of
the SDP, told a separate press conference.
Hatoyama made it clear last week that he would not let the Futemma base remain
where it is and would pick a new relocation site and conclude negotiations with
the United States by the end of May as he has promised.
In a meeting earlier Tuesday, Shigeno and his counterpart in the People's New
Party, Shozaburo Jimi, agreed to ask Hirano to give a warning to Okada. Jimi's
party is also a junior partner in the Democratic Party of Japan-led government.
Tokyo and Washington forged an agreement on the reconfiguration of U.S. forces
in Japan in 2006, and as part of the deal, the two agreed to relocate the
Futemma base to the Henoko district of Nago to ease the burden on people in
Ginowan.
But Hatoyama's government, which was swept to power after the DPJ routed the
long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in an election last August, has been
exploring an alternative to the existing plan in hope of finding a new site
outside of the prefecture.
Hatoyama has come under further pressure to pick a new site after base opponent
Susumu Inamine won the Nago mayoral election.
==Kyodo
2010-02-02 23:00:05