Eruption of Okinawa anger could threaten Japan-U.S. ties: Okinawa group+

TOKYO, March 11 Kyodo -
A group of Okinawa prefectural assembly members urged Cabinet ministers
Thursday to move the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station outside the southernmost
prefecture, warning the eruption of local anger over the base relocation could
threaten the Japan-U.S. security alliance.
The 5-member delegation headed by Yonekichi Shinzato told Chief Cabinet
Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and Okinawa
affairs minister Seiji Maehara that the Futemma facility should be moved
outside the prefecture in line with a resolution which was unanimously adopted
by the assembly in late February.
After meeting separately with the ministers, Shinzato told reporters not only
the 48-member Okinawa assembly but also all the local municipality heads are
now against any move to transfer the Marine airfield located in a crowded
residential area within the island prefecture.
''We told the chief Cabinet secretary that the magma of Okinawa people's anger
is rising and its eruption could pose a danger to the Japan-U.S. security
alliance,'' Shinzato said.
Hirano told the assembly members that the government will prioritize removing
the danger of the Futemma facility, ensuring defense for Japan and respecting
local people's wishes, Shinzato said. A government panel headed by Hirano has
been deliberating on where to relocate the Futemma facility, but is yet to draw
a conclusion.
Kitazawa told the assembly members that their resolution is ''very weighty''
and that the government is scheduled to soon reach a conclusion on where to
move the Futemma airfield.
The defense chief also said the government is planning to negotiate with people
in Okinawa once it decides on a candidate site.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to settle the Futemma relocation
issue by the end of May and set the deadline at the end of this month for the
government to come up with a transfer plan.
Maehara told the delegation that unlike the previous government led by the
Liberal Democratic Party, the current Democratic Party of Japan-led government
will not adopt an approach of trying to solve the base relocation issue
''through money,'' or subsidies from the central government.
Shinzato also told reporters that the local assembly members are against a plan
floated by the DPJ's coalition partner the People's New Party to build a
helipad or a 1,600-meter runway at the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in
Okinawa.
Unlike the current plan agreed upon by Japan and the United States in 2006, the
so-called onshore relocation plan will not reclaim the camp's coastal area. But
Shinzato said the idea was discarded in the past and that it would generate
noise pollution for local residents.
Hatoyama, who doubles as the DPJ leader, advocated during the House of
Representatives election campaign last year moving heliport functions of the
Futemma facility out of Okinawa or abroad. The DPJ-led coalition government
came to power in September.
Shinzato said people in Okinawa only hear reports on plans to move the Futemma
facility within the prefecture and the central government ''doesn't understand
the suffering of Okinawa,'' which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in
Japan.
''It is nothing but discrimination against Okinawa,'' Shinzato said.
==Kyodo