Hatoyama blames media for making U.S. base salient issue+

TOKYO, April 16 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed displeasure Friday with the media
coverage of the dispute over the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa,
suggesting that they are to blame for making it the central issue for his
seven-month-old government.
''The fact that (the Futemma issue) has become the issue of most interest for
the public shows, I think, that the media are working too much (on the
matter),'' he said to a group of supporters from his Hokkaido constituency at
parliament. ''You didn't know about such a thing as Futemma, did you?''
Hatoyama then reassured them that he will come to a conclusion on the matter by
the end of May as promised, saying, ''The media have written that I cannot
possibly do it (resolve the matter) because of me being who I am, but you need
not worry.''
Hatoyama said later in the day that the remarks were meant to ask the media to
report on the matter more calmly.
''Every day, the media have reported things that haven't even been finalized
formally, including geographical names,'' he said, referring to reports on
Futemma's potential relocation sites. ''What I meant was that normally (the
media) should make judgments more calmly.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano later clarified Hatoyama's remarks by
saying that the prime minister meant to say the Futemma issue is one not just
for the region being affected but for the entire country.
''I think (Hatoyama) wanted the public to renew their awareness that they must
tackle this problem head on more,'' he said at a news conference.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa played down the difference between
Hatoyama and Hirano over the definition of resolving the Futemma question by
the end of May.
''There's not much difference (between the two) about what they are saying,''
Kitazawa said at a news conference. ''It depends on the way it's expressed and
received.''
Hatoyama says he needs agreement from the United States and the local
governments with jurisdiction over potential relocation sites to reach a
conclusion on the matter. But with the May 31 deadline looking increasingly
difficult to be met, Hirano has begun sounding as if the government would only
need the parties concerned to agree to start consultative talks to consider the
matter resolved.
Kitazawa said at a news conference that the resolution means to him to address
the question about where to put an alternative relocation site in line with the
policy agreed on among Cabinet ministers concerned and whether that plan would
not reduce the functions served by the U.S. military.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Naoto Kan said at a separate news
conference that he and other ministers in the Cabinet will give Hatoyama their
full support to help resolve the matter by May 31. ''That's all that needs to
be said,'' he said.
Meanwhile, Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima expressed support for Hatoyama's
efforts to have the Futemma facility moved outside of the southernmost
prefecture, telling reporters in Tokyo, ''There's still more than a month to
go,'' adding, ''I think we should give him due credit for the hard work he's
put into it.''
A current relocation plan agreed on between Japan and the United States calls
for moving the Futemma base in the densely populated city of Ginowan to a
coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition government, which came to
power last September following the DPJ's historic win in a general election,
has been reexamining the plan with a view to reducing burdens on the people of
Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military facilities in the country.
==Kyodo