Tokunoshima residents hold protest rally against Futemma plan+

KAGOSHIMA, Japan, March 28 Kyodo - About 4,200 residents of Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture held a protest rally Sunday following reports that the island is one of the candidate
sites being considered by the central government for the relocation of a U.S. Marine base.

''There has been no approach from the government and we cannot allow the
government to ignore locals and proceed with negotiations on the relocation''
of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, a mayor of
one of the three towns on the island said.
At the rally in which former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike also participated,
residents held up signs saying, ''Tokunoshima doesn't need any bases,'' and
said they are opposed to the relocation.
Eighty-year-old farmer Tokuhiro Motoda said, ''Tokunoshima is an island with
rich nature and farming. Our living would be destroyed by the base.''
The three towns on the island and the Kagoshima prefectural assembly have
adopted resolutions to oppose the Futemma base relocation to the island.
According to diplomatic sources, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told U.S.
Ambassador to Japan John Roos on Friday that Tokyo is considering a two-stage
process, starting with the building of a 550-meter-long helipad on the inland
part of the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa, to temporarily relocate
some of the helicopter functions from the Futemma facility.
As for the final relocation site, the government is considering an artificial
island to be built off the coast of the U.S. Navy's White Beach facility in
Uruma, also in Okinawa, or Tokunoshima Island, the sources said.
==Kyodo