Hirano hints at U.S. base relocation within Okinawa

NAHA, Japan, Feb. 20 Kyodo -
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano hinted Saturday that the government may
pick a site for relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station within
Okinawa Prefecture.
''We are seeking the 'best' conclusion, but we may end up drawing a 'better'
conclusion,'' Hirano said in his meeting with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima at
the prefectural office in Naha, indicating that the central government may come
up with a plan to relocate the Futemma facility within the prefecture.
Nakaima told reporters after the meeting it would be ''difficult'' for his
prefecture to accept relocation within it.
Asked about Hirano's remarks, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in Tokyo, ''It
would be best if we could come up with a plan that can gain support from
Okinawa and the United States'' and stressed that his government will ''seek
the best plan, not a better one,'' in apparent efforts to negate the
speculation over relocation within Okinawa.
The meeting between the top government spokesman and the governor took place
after Japan reportedly sounded out the United States about the idea of building
a helipad at the Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in the Okinawa city of Nago to
relocate the Futemma facility, instead of a 2006 plan agreed by the two
countries to move the facility to a coastal area off the camp.
Hirano, however, told Nakaima that Tokyo has not made such a proposal to
Washington.
''We have not sounded out the United States about the idea. We are considering
(the relocation) on a zero basis,'' Hirano told Nakaima.
Reiterating that the Okinawa prefectural government prefers relocating the
Futemma facility outside the southernmost prefecture, Nakaima called for talks
between the central and prefectural governments so that the latter can be kept
well informed of the government's intentions.
Hirano, meanwhile, explained that the central government has set up a liaison
office at the Cabinet Secretariat and its branch office in Naha to collect
information and requests from local figures in Okinawa to better deal with the
issue of U.S. military bases.
Separately, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters in Iwakuni,
Yamaguchi Prefecture, that as Hatoyama pledged to conclude talks over the
Futemma relocation with the United States by the end of May, he expects a
government task force exploring alternative candidate sites will present
options by the end of this month.
Kitazawa said the task force headed by Hirano may pick a couple of candidate
sites and ask the foreign and defense ministries to negotiate with the United
States without making them public.
According to several government sources, the Hatoyama government informed
Washington in early February of a proposal to build a 300- to 500-meter-long
helipad at Camp Schwab along with transferring some of the training drills
conducted at Futemma, which is located in a crowded residential area in
Ginowan, outside of the prefecture.
But it remains unclear if the United States will agree to the idea after
pressing Japan to stick to the original 2006 relocation plan and build two
runways in a V shape, each runway having a length of 1,600 meters plus two
100-meter overruns, for the relocation.
==Kyodo