Hatoyama says relocation ideas previously dropped 'worth' studying

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TOKYO, Feb. 17 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he is willing to look into
relocation plans for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa
Prefecture, even if they were dropped in the past negotiations with the United
States, including those to move it within the prefecture.
''I believe it is still worth examining the ideas...which were not necessarily
considered optimal during the Liberal Democratic Party period,'' Hatoyama told
reporters in the evening, adding that it is not clear what was the reasoning
behind the former ruling party's past decisions.
He made the remarks after one of the three ruling parties approved at a party
panel two relocation plans, which were both floated in the negotiations between
Tokyo and Washington before the two agreed in 2006 to transfer the Futemma base
in Ginowan to the coastal area of Nago, another Okinawa city, after reclaiming
land from the sea off another U.S. Marine base.
One of the People's New Party's plans is to consolidate the Futemma airfield
with the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base, while another is to transfer it to the
U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in Nago, without land reclamation.
In a related move, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine met in Tokyo separately with PNP
leader Shizuka Kamei and Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party.
The PNP and the SDP are the two coalition partners of Hatoyama's Democratic
Party of Japan-led tripartite government.
''I won (the mayoral election), promising local people that I will not allow
(the government) to build any new base either in the sea off the Henoko area
(in Nago) or on the land,'' Inamine told Kamei. ''I believe that reflects the
will of the local people.''
The new mayor asked Kamei to understand the people's wish and to come up with a
decision that would not put any more burdens on people in either Nago or
Okinawa Prefecture, which has hosted about 75 percent of U.S. troops stationed
in Japan.
In response, Kamei said to him, ''We will work hard toward a solution
respecting the feelings of people in Nago and people in Okinawa.''
The PNP and the SDP were supposed to present their own relocation ideas at
Wednesday's meeting of a government task force aimed at finding a relocation
site.
But the two parties decided to postpone doing so, citing lack of advance
coordination within their parties.
The PNP's proposed inland plan has drawn opposition from the SDP, which has
sought to find a relocation site outside the southernmost Japan prefecture or
outside Japan, such as the U.S. territory of Guam.
In a meeting with Inamine, Fukushima said to him, ''I will not support any U.S.
base being built either in the coastal area of Henoko or on the inland area. I
will insist that Camp Schwab is not an option.''
On Wednesday, Inamine also held talks with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa separately, demanding that the government
drop the Nago relocation plan.
Okada only responded that the government is ''earnestly'' looking for a
relocation site, while Kitazawa said, ''I don't intend to say any specific
plan.''
Inamine plans to meet with Hatoyama as well as DPJ Secretary General Ichiro
Ozawa on Thursday to make a similar request to them.
The government aims to find a relocation site and conclude negotiations with
the United States by the end of May.
==Kyodo