Tokunoshima residents rally against Futemma base relocation+

TOKUNOSHIMA, Japan, April 18 Kyodo -
About 15,000 people gathered on Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture on
Sunday to protest against a proposal by the central government to relocate a
U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture to the island.
''Reports several days ago said the U.S. side is against the idea and so are
locals. A plan for relocating the base to Tokunoshima is out of the question,''
Hideki Takaoka, Tokunoshima town mayor, said at the rally, while calling for
solidarity and a wider ring of protest.
Local high school student Yuki Nakakuma read out a message aimed at Japanese
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama saying that
residents on the island are worried that hosting a military base could harm
natural resources and human relations there. Organizers of the rally plan to
send the message to Hatoyama and Obama.
The rally was also joined by labor union members and other people from outside
the island, which has a population of about 25,000. A previous protest rally
was held March 28 with about 4,200 people taking part.
The Hatoyama government apparently intends to negotiate the relocation of the
Futemma base by proposing the Tokunoshima option. However, the U.S. government
has said the next host town must agree to the proposal before the Japanese
government can present it to Washington.
Mayors of the three towns on the island also conveyed their opposition to the
proposal in a meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on March 25.
''I want Prime Minister Hatoyama to think about the significance of today's
event -- a gathering of this many (people) on such a small island,'' said
Kosuke Ohisa, the mayor of Amagi, one of the three towns.
The U.S. base row involves a 2006 bilateral deal involving a plan to relocate
the Futemma airfield in the crowded city of Ginowan to a new airfield to be
built in a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa.
==Kyodo