Hatoyama has own relocation plan, aims to remove Futemma danger by 2014+

TOKYO, March 31 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in parliament Wednesday he has his ''own
plan in mind'' for where to transfer a U.S. base in Okinawa Prefecture and that
he is ''confident'' that it is ''effective'' in removing the danger,
maintaining U.S. deterrence and easing the base-hosting burden on local people.
The premier told reporters at his office afterward that the idea he had
referred to in a Diet debate has already been shared with other Cabinet
ministers concerned and the government is about to enter the process of
negotiating with the United States.
But he said it is not time yet to make public the plan and that he intends to
do so sometime before the end of May -- his self-imposed deadline for settling
the U.S. base row.
The 63-year-old Japanese leader stressed that local consent is a prerequisite
for proceeding with any negotiations with Washington on his relocation plan and
that he is willing to visit a candidate site to meet with local residents at
some point.
In the 45-minute debate with opposition Liberal Democratic Party leader
Sadakazu Tanigaki, Hatoyama also pledged to eliminate by 2014 the risk to local
residents posed by the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan in
line with a time frame stipulated in a deal that Japan and the United States
inked in 2006.
Under the existing deal, struck between a previous government led by the
Liberal Democratic Party and the United States, the functions of the Futemma
base, currently located in a crowded residential area, would be transferred to
the coastal portion of the Marines' Camp Schwab in the city of Nago, also in
the southernmost prefecture.
But it is not clear whether he meant to aim for the complete closure of the
Futemma facility and the return of the land to the people of Okinawa by 2014.
In their second face-off during the current Diet session, Tanigaki urged
Hatoyama to stand down or to seek a public mandate by dissolving the House of
Representatives for an election if he fails to resolve the issue by the end of
May.
Hatoyama responded, ''I will stake my life'' and that ''I will definitely show
successful results.''
The leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan also counterattacked the LDP
for failing to proceed with the relocation in line with the 2006 deal.
He argued that 14 years have already passed since Japan and the United States
agreed in 1996 to shut down Futemma in the following five to seven years, but
that the LDP-led governments failed to act quickly and as a result people in
Ginowan remain exposed to the danger posed by Futemma.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi
Hirano said Hatoyama will likely visit a relocation site to gain understanding
from local people ''in the final phase'' of the negotiations between the two
countries.
Hatoyama said he hopes that people outside Okinawa will thank the prefecture
for having hosted a large chunk of U.S. forces in Japan for a long time and
understand the need to share the burden.
Japan has conveyed to the United States a proposal involving such candidate
locations as the inland part of Camp Schwab, an area off the coast of the U.S.
Navy's White Beach facility in Uruma, also Okinawa, and Tokunoshima Island in
Kagoshima Prefecture, according to diplomatic sources.
But the government is also considering transferring part of the Marines'
drilling to bases for Japan's Self-Defense Forces in the Kyushu region.
Just as in the previous Diet debate on Feb. 17, he also met with a barrage of
attacks from Tanigaki over funding scandals that involve himself as well as
other DPJ members including DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.
Prosecutors Monday demanded two years in prison against one of the premier's
former secretaries charged with falsifying a political funds report for
Hatoyama.
The premier said he feels responsible over the case, but rejected resigning for
it.
''I will work myself to the bone and will take the responsibility by living up
to the expectations of people for a change of politics,'' he said.
Wednesday's debate was also a crucial one for Tanigaki, who has been under
pressure to push up voter support for the LDP, which has shown little sign of a
recovery since the party fell from power as a result of last year's historic
election.
Tanigaki has lost some of his clout within the party since the previous debate,
when some members felt he failed to deliver a fatal blow to Hatoyama.
Senior LDP members such as former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and former
Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe have since begun denouncing
the party leadership's failure to take advantage of the DPJ's repeated blunders
and inability to improve the LDP's popularity ratings.
==Kyodo
2010-03-31 23:27:28