U.S. nixes Japan's proposed new Futemma base relocation site+

TOKYO, May 17 Kyodo - The United States has rejected Japan's proposal for moving offshore the site for relocating a U.S. Marine Corps base within Okinawa Prefecture, Japan-U.S. relations sources said Monday, as Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama struggles to clear up differences even within his ruling coalition.

Washington has told Tokyo that the new site should remain roughly in an area
the two countries agreed to in 2006, increasing the possibility that the
relocation site for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station will end up not
much different from the existing plan.
Last week, Japan told the United States it wants to build a replacement
facility with a pile-supported runway in shallow waters about 500 meters
southwest off the coast of Nago in the prefecture.
The United States voiced opposition to the proposal, as moving a runway
offshore will entail a new environmental assessment that will likely further
delay the base relocation, the sources said.
Given that the United States is also against the idea of building a
pile-supported runway there, partly because of concerns about the risk of a
terrorist attack, Hatoyama's government is facing growing difficulty breaking
the deadlock over the issue, let alone meeting his self-imposed deadline of May
31.
Hatoyama is also finding it difficult to iron out differences in opinion among
the ruling parties.
Hatoyama may not seek approval from Cabinet members later this month for a
proposal on where to move the U.S. base, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi
Hirano indicated Monday.
''There may be a way for the premier to speak'' on the government's stance on
the relocation, instead of collecting approval signatures from all members of
the Cabinet, Hirano said at a news conference.
Consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima told Hatoyama in the afternoon that
she will not approve the government's current policy of transferring most of
the Futemma functions within the prefecture.
''I can't approve the plan to build a base by ruining the sea in the
prefecture,'' Fukushima, leader of the small ruling coalition member Social
Democratic Party, told reporters after visiting Hatoyama at his office.
Hatoyama has repeatedly said he will try to decide by May 31 where to relocate
the airfield by securing consent for a government relocation proposal from the
coalition partners, the communities that would host replacement facilities and
the United States.
The new approach to meet the deadline has been floated, although Hatoyama,
Hirano and other ministers concerned just last Friday confirmed that Cabinet
approval is needed on the relocation plan.
Hatoyama told reporters in the evening that he has yet to decide on whether to
seek approval for the plan from all Cabinet members.
''I think it would still be all right to make a decision by looking at the
situation from this point,'' Hatoyama said. ''So I have not decided yet.''
Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 on a plan to relocate the heliport
functions of Futemma by reclaiming land on an atoll reef on the coast of Nago's
Henoko area near U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab.
During working-level talks last Wednesday at the Pentagon, U.S. officials said
they would not accept Japan's proposals to move some U.S. military functions
out of Okinawa Prefecture if Tokyo does not build a replacement facility within
the area of the 2006 accord that has already been subject to nearly three years
of environmental assessment, according to the sources.
Despite the tough U.S. stance, the Japanese government is still exploring the
possibility of building a new facility by partly using a pile-supported
structure, the sources said.
The 2006 accord also stipulates that two runways in a V-shaped configuration
will be built on land to be created by filling in the sea near Camp Schwab. But
there is now an idea between Japan and the United States to build one runway,
the sources said.
Still, if a runway is built in the Henoko district in line with the accord,
there is the possibility of U.S. helicopters flying over the local communities.
Okinawa prefectural bylaws require no environmental assessment if an airport
area does not change by more than 10 hectares from an initial plan, meaning the
site for a new airstrip can be moved up to about 55 meters offshore in a
parallel direction from the bilaterally agreed area without a new assessment.
Japan and the United States are scheduled to hold deputy-director-general-level
talks Wednesday in Tokyo to discuss the relocation, ahead of U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton's planned visit to Japan on Friday.
==Kyodo