DPJ may present Futemma relocation plan after coalition options

TOKYO, Feb. 16 Kyodo -
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano indicated Tuesday that the Democratic
Party of Japan will present to a government committee studying where to
relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa its own idea on the issue after the
party's coalition partners do so.
But the government decided the same day that the panel will postpone having the
partners, the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party, present their
ideas at a meeting on Wednesday due to lack of coordination among the three
parties.
Hirano had not said whether his party would present an idea of its own to the
panel, which he chairs, possibly out of concern that any plan put forward by
the DPJ, which has a dominant presence in the government, could effectively be
perceived as final.
On the possibility that the postponement could affect Tokyo's plan to settle by
the end of May the issue of where to move the Futemma Air Station, Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters on Tuesday evening that it ''will never
have any impact on making a decision by the end of May.''
He also indicated that a plan is being considered on a separate track from the
panel, saying, ''Various considerations are under way (apart from) the public
side, though we are at a stage where we cannot tell you.''
Asked if he and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yorihisa Matsuno, both DPJ
members of the panel, will present their ideas on where to relocate the Futemma
facility, Hirano said at a news conference, ''Of course, it will probably be
that way.''
''I have been considering various (plans),'' he added.
Hirano also said that once the three parties present their options, the
government will take it from there and decide on a plan, saying that those who
will make proposals at the panel have yet to finish coordinating with local
governments or the United States.
''The government will responsibly scrutinize whether (the ideas presented) are
technically feasible,'' he said.
Hatoyama's five-month-old government has revisited a Japanese-U.S. plan to move
the Futemma facility in the crowded city of Ginowan to the less densely
populated city of Nago on the same island, with the United States pressing
Tokyo to stick to it.
While Hatoyama says the postponement will not affect his self-imposed
end-of-May deadline to come to a final conclusion on the issue, it could still
affect the panel's plan to narrow down a list of relocation options by the end
of next month.
Tuesday's decision reflects concerns within the government and the ruling bloc
that having the SDP and the People's New Party present their own ideas to the
panel now could invite opposition calls for a parliamentary debate on the
matter, according to ruling bloc sources.
The presentation is likely to be postponed until the fiscal 2010 budget clears
the House of Representatives, which is expected to come by early next month,
the sources said.
There is also speculation that the SDP prefers not to name specific candidate
sites for relocation ahead of the Nagasaki gubernatorial election this weekend
because it is considering proposing some Self-Defense Forces installations in
the prefecture.
The Diet affairs chiefs of the three parties asked Hirano earlier in the day to
postpone Wednesday's meeting, but the two sides agreed that the meeting will be
held on Wednesday as scheduled but without having the junior partners unveil
their relocation ideas, the lawmakers said.
Kenji Yamaoka, the DPJ's Diet affairs chief, and his counterparts in the junior
partners had agreed that the panel should hold a meeting after the parties
coordinate their views ''sufficiently,'' he told reporters.
Meanwhile, new Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine held his first talks with Okinawa Gov.
Hirokazu Nakaima since he took office earlier this month, following his recent
victory in a mayoral race by opposing the Futemma facility's relocation to his
city.
Inamine asked Nakaima to cooperate with him in developing the city, while the
governor only said the two should exchange information frequently and consult
with each other.
''I think the governor understands my stance,'' Inamine told reporters after
the meeting, adding that he opposes an idea groomed by the People's New Party
to build an airfield on the inland part of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago,
which would obviate the need for sea reclamation.
Inamine said he will visit Tokyo on Wednesday and Thursday to press members of
the Hatoyama Cabinet and other government officials to value local opinions in
discussing the matter.
The government panel on the Futemma issue was set up late last year to find a
relocation site for the Futemma facility on a ''zero basis.'' The SDP has
called for moving the base outside of the prefecture, and preferably abroad.
Under a broader 2006 bilateral agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in
Japan, the completion of Futemma's replacement facility in Nago is targeted for
2014, while the transfer of about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam is eyed in
the same time frame.
==Kyodo