Hatoyama silent on slightly modified base relocation within Okinawa+

TOKYO, April 26 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Monday did not deny weekend reports that Japan
has proposed to the United States slightly modifying the existing plan for
relocating a U.S. Marine base within Okinawa Prefecture, while pledging to
reduce burdens on Okinawa in light of Sunday's massive protest rally there.
''I am sorry, but we are seriously studying a government plan right now, so at
this stage I cannot say 'yes' or 'no' to each idea. Please understand that,''
Hatoyama said at his office in the evening as reporters bombarded him with
questions.
He made the comments following media reports on the weekend that Tokyo has
indicated it will broadly accept the 2006 deal to transfer the U.S. Marine
Corps' Futemma Air Station from the center of a residential area in Ginowan to
a less crowded part of the southernmost prefecture with some changes.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, meanwhile, denied the possibility that
the government will end up accepting the existing plan as it is, telling a
press conference that a reversion to the plan ''won't happen.''
''If that happens, what have we been studying for all these six or seven
months? And it wouldn't help reduce their burden,'' he said.
Hatoyama said the government is focusing on two things -- the alleviation of
the burden of hosting U.S. military forces and the removal of safety risks
posted by the Futemma air station -- in order to settle the dispute by his
self-imposed deadline of the end of May.
Also on Monday, heads of several Okinawa cities and local assemblymen visited
ministers in Tokyo to demand that the central government drop all plans to
transfer the Futemma airfield within the prefecture, but were only told that
Tokyo has yet to decide any concrete relocation plans or when it can begin
negotiations with people in an affected area, they said.
''It is unfortunate (that Tokyo has not come up with a formal proposal yet at
this stage),'' said Takeshi Onaga, mayor of the Okinawa capital Naha, after
meeting with Hirano at the premier's office.
''Since Prime Minister Hatoyama is the first person who talked about a
relocation outside the prefecture, I would like to believe his unalloyed
feelings,'' Onaga told reporters.
''But an outcome is all about politics,'' he said. ''I am watching with bated
breath how the gravity of the premier's remarks goes.''
Earlier in the day, Hatoyama said, ''We certainly understand that it is one way
of the public expressing its will,'' referring to the large demonstration
against Futemma's relocation within Okinawa that took place in the Okinawa
village of Yomitan on Sunday.
''As I have said, we will continue our efforts to realize the easing of the
burden on people in Okinawa and the removal of the danger of Futemma,'' he
said.
On Sunday, about 90,000 local residents and politicians, including Okinawa Gov.
Hirokazu Nakaima, gathered in Yomitan to call for the relocation of the Futemma
base outside the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces in
Japan.
Under the 2006 accord, Tokyo and Washington agreed to relocate the base to the
Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago with land reclamation as part of a broader
realignment of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
The Democratic Party of Japan-led government has been seeking an alternative
site outside Okinawa since it took power last September, while Washington has
pressed Tokyo to stick to the existing plan agreed to by a previous Liberal
Democratic Party-led government.
According to Japanese government sources, the premier has been considering
moving the Futemma facility to Tokunoshima, some 200 kilometers northeast of
Okinawa, but remains unable to present it to the United States as a formal
proposal due to fierce opposition from three towns on the island.
But following opposition from Tokunoshima, some of the sources said on the
weekend that the Hatoyama government is mulling constructing a pile-supported
runway off the coast of Nago, which is expected to reduce the impact on the
local marine environment compared with the existing one requiring land
reclamation.
==Kyodo