ID :
110545
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 06:07
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/110545
The shortlink copeid
Coalition partners present alternatives to Futemma relocation plan+
TOKYO, March 8 Kyodo -
Junior coalition partners in the Democratic Party of Japan-led government
presented their proposals Monday to a government committee studying where to
relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture.
Now that the two parties have submitted their plans, the government will study
the feasibility of each plan through unofficial consultations with the U.S.
side, with a view to coming up with its own plan by the end of this month.
With the support rate for his Cabinet hitting an all-time low, the political
stakes are high for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has promised the United
States that the base row will be resolved by the end of May and has set a
deadline of the end of March to begin talks with the parties concerned with a
concrete plan ready.
The plans presented by the Social Democratic Party include one to relocate the
Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan to Guam, while those submitted by
the People's New Party include one to move it to the Marines' Camp Schwab in
Nago on the same southern island.
The current plan agreed by Japan and the United States envisions moving the
Futemma functions to a new facility to be built on a coastal area of the camp.
It involves reclamation, unlike the PNP proposal.
The government, meanwhile, is studying a plan to build a helipad or a
1,600-meter-class runway at the camp, without reclamation, and another to
reclaim an area between the U.S. military's White Beach area in Uruma on the
main Okinawa island and Tsuken Island, according to sources close to bilateral
ties.
A highest-level consultative body involving the leaders of the three coalition
parties is likely to meet possibly by the end of this month to confirm a
government plan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday.
Once the plan is finalized, talks with the United States and a local government
that would host a Futemma replacement facility would begin in earnest.
But the efforts are likely to hit a snag because the United States has
maintained that the current bilateral plan is the best and a local government
is certain to react negatively to a plan that would affect its community.
Earlier in the day, the Nago city assembly unanimously adopted a position
document opposing the PNP proposal to relocate Futemma to Camp Schwab.
Commenting on the move, Hatoyama said, ''The important thing is, as I have said
repeatedly, Futemma's final relocation site will not be decided unless we can
obtain support from the public, starting with the people of Okinawa.''
''We need now and in the future a process in which plans will be consolidated
into one that can gain the support of people, particularly the people in
Okinawa Prefecture,'' Hatoyama told reporters.
The SDP, which calls for reducing the base-hosting burdens on the people of
Okinawa, presented three plans to Monday's panel meeting. The first one seeks
to move Futemma entirely to the U.S. territory of Guam or Tinian in the
Northern Mariana Islands.
The second plan seeks to make Guam the new base for the Marines currently based
in Okinawa, with their drills to be held in Japan excluding Okinawa. And the
third plan seeks to relocate the Marines' bases and drills to Japanese
locations outside Okinawa Prefecture.
The SDP listed the three plans in order of preference, while calling for
allowing the use of the Futemma facility by the U.S. military in emergencies
until it is returned to Japan. The party kept secret the names of the domestic
locations eyed for drills under its plans, disclosing them only to Hirano, who
presides over the panel.
The locations include installations of the Self-Defense Forces, according to a
source close to the matter.
The PNP presented two plans -- one to consolidate Futemma's functions into the
U.S. Air Force's nearby Kadena Air Base and the other to build a 1,500-meter
runway at Camp Schwab that would not require reclamation.
Under the PNP's plans, the Marines would be moved out of the prefecture 15
years after the locations were put into use and their drills would be relocated
to SDF installations outside Okinawa.
Hirano said Monday that the panel would still meet whenever necessary,
including when a coalition party requests such a meeting.
The top government spokesman had earlier considered terminating consultations
under the framework without having the junior partners present their plans, but
decided to convene the panel at the request of the SDP, according to a
high-ranking government official.
Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 to relocate Futemma to Nago from the
more densely populated city of Ginowan by 2014 under an accord encompassing the
realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the transfer of some 8,000
Marines from Okinawa to Guam. But Tokyo started to review the Futemma
relocation plan in the wake of the historic change of government in September.
==Kyodo
Junior coalition partners in the Democratic Party of Japan-led government
presented their proposals Monday to a government committee studying where to
relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture.
Now that the two parties have submitted their plans, the government will study
the feasibility of each plan through unofficial consultations with the U.S.
side, with a view to coming up with its own plan by the end of this month.
With the support rate for his Cabinet hitting an all-time low, the political
stakes are high for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has promised the United
States that the base row will be resolved by the end of May and has set a
deadline of the end of March to begin talks with the parties concerned with a
concrete plan ready.
The plans presented by the Social Democratic Party include one to relocate the
Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan to Guam, while those submitted by
the People's New Party include one to move it to the Marines' Camp Schwab in
Nago on the same southern island.
The current plan agreed by Japan and the United States envisions moving the
Futemma functions to a new facility to be built on a coastal area of the camp.
It involves reclamation, unlike the PNP proposal.
The government, meanwhile, is studying a plan to build a helipad or a
1,600-meter-class runway at the camp, without reclamation, and another to
reclaim an area between the U.S. military's White Beach area in Uruma on the
main Okinawa island and Tsuken Island, according to sources close to bilateral
ties.
A highest-level consultative body involving the leaders of the three coalition
parties is likely to meet possibly by the end of this month to confirm a
government plan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday.
Once the plan is finalized, talks with the United States and a local government
that would host a Futemma replacement facility would begin in earnest.
But the efforts are likely to hit a snag because the United States has
maintained that the current bilateral plan is the best and a local government
is certain to react negatively to a plan that would affect its community.
Earlier in the day, the Nago city assembly unanimously adopted a position
document opposing the PNP proposal to relocate Futemma to Camp Schwab.
Commenting on the move, Hatoyama said, ''The important thing is, as I have said
repeatedly, Futemma's final relocation site will not be decided unless we can
obtain support from the public, starting with the people of Okinawa.''
''We need now and in the future a process in which plans will be consolidated
into one that can gain the support of people, particularly the people in
Okinawa Prefecture,'' Hatoyama told reporters.
The SDP, which calls for reducing the base-hosting burdens on the people of
Okinawa, presented three plans to Monday's panel meeting. The first one seeks
to move Futemma entirely to the U.S. territory of Guam or Tinian in the
Northern Mariana Islands.
The second plan seeks to make Guam the new base for the Marines currently based
in Okinawa, with their drills to be held in Japan excluding Okinawa. And the
third plan seeks to relocate the Marines' bases and drills to Japanese
locations outside Okinawa Prefecture.
The SDP listed the three plans in order of preference, while calling for
allowing the use of the Futemma facility by the U.S. military in emergencies
until it is returned to Japan. The party kept secret the names of the domestic
locations eyed for drills under its plans, disclosing them only to Hirano, who
presides over the panel.
The locations include installations of the Self-Defense Forces, according to a
source close to the matter.
The PNP presented two plans -- one to consolidate Futemma's functions into the
U.S. Air Force's nearby Kadena Air Base and the other to build a 1,500-meter
runway at Camp Schwab that would not require reclamation.
Under the PNP's plans, the Marines would be moved out of the prefecture 15
years after the locations were put into use and their drills would be relocated
to SDF installations outside Okinawa.
Hirano said Monday that the panel would still meet whenever necessary,
including when a coalition party requests such a meeting.
The top government spokesman had earlier considered terminating consultations
under the framework without having the junior partners present their plans, but
decided to convene the panel at the request of the SDP, according to a
high-ranking government official.
Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 to relocate Futemma to Nago from the
more densely populated city of Ginowan by 2014 under an accord encompassing the
realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the transfer of some 8,000
Marines from Okinawa to Guam. But Tokyo started to review the Futemma
relocation plan in the wake of the historic change of government in September.
==Kyodo
