Mayor asks PM to give up on relocation of Futemma base to Nago+

TOKYO, Feb. 18 Kyodo -
Susumu Inamine, the new mayor of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture, asked Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Thursday to give up on a plan to relocate the U.S.
Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station to his city from Ginowan on the same southern
island.

''I told him that I need to take the fact that mayor Inamine was elected as
Nago mayor as one expression of the popular will,'' Hatoyama told reporters in
the evening.
The prime minister said, however, that he does not plan to express a preference
for any particular relocation site for Futemma because a government committee
is studying the matter ''by looking at every option.''
The meeting, held at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, was the first
between the two since Inamine defeated an incumbent in the mayoral election
last month on the pledge not to accept the Futemma facility.
Hatoyama remains reluctant to talk about where the Futemma facility should be
moved, aside from saying that the base cannot stay where it is. The
face-to-face meeting with the mayor could affect the final conclusion that the
prime minister says will be reached by the end of May.
''I told him that I won the (mayoral) election on the promises I made on the
Futemma relocation and asked him to take that seriously as the popular will,''
Inamine told reporters.
''I told him that I have promised the people not to allow (a replacement
facility) to be built on the sea or on the land,'' Inamine said, adding that he
has also promised to seek the relocation of the Futemma base outside of the
southernmost prefecture.
The mayor was referring to an existing plan to build a new airfield largely on
a reclaimed area off the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago and another plan to build
the facility at the camp in a way that would obviate the need for land
reclamation.
Local opposition to the Nago relocation remains strong, due partly to concern
over the project's impact on marine life in the area. The inland relocation
option is being pushed by the People's New Party, one of the junior coalition
partners in Hatoyama's tripartite government.
Hatoyama told Inamine that the panel is currently discussing ways to reduce the
burden on the people of Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces
in Japan, according to the mayor.
Besides his request on the base issue, Inamine asked Hatoyama to consider
extending support for the development of northern Okinawa where Nago is
located, which lags behind the rest of the southern island economically.
The development issue is a sensitive one because the previous government led by
the Liberal Democratic Party had long been accused of providing generous
subsidies to Okinawa in exchange for hosting U.S. military forces.
Hatoyama on Thursday distanced himself from such an approach, telling
reporters, ''Although there may have been a practice in which (the central
government) offered candies to control (local governments), that is not the way
it should be.''
He said, however, the government should consider providing infrastructural
assistance to the region because support should be provided to underdeveloped
areas from the viewpoint of a ''budget that protects lives,'' the phrase he
uses to sell his government's budget for fiscal 2010.
Meanwhile, Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said again Thursday that relocating
the Futemma base to Nago has become ''extremely difficult'' now that Inamine
has won the mayoral election in the city.
Speaking at a session of the Okinawa prefectural assembly in Naha, Nakaima said
he will watch developments in the central government, while noting that
relocating the Futemma facility outside of the prefecture is the most desirable
scenario.
''The starting point is to remove the risks posed by the Futemma Air Station as
soon as possible,'' he said. ''I cannot tolerate leaving (the base) as it is.''
Futemma's relocation to the less crowded part of the island is part of a 2006
agreement reached by Japan and the United States for the realignment of U.S.
forces in Japan.
The relocation is supposed to be completed by 2014, but opinion remains divided
on where to relocate the base even within the ruling coalition, with the PNP
proposing to integrate Futemma's heliport functions with the U.S. Air Force's
nearby Kadena Air Base or to transfer them to Camp Schwab.
Another coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, confirmed Thursday it
plans to propose Futemma's relocation to the U.S. territory of Guam.
''We will strongly press for relocation to Guam as a party,'' SDP Secretary
General Yasumasa Shigeno told reporters after a meeting of the party's standing
officers' council.
==Kyodo
2010-02-18 23:07:04


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