Gov't planning not to specify U.S. base relocation site this week+

TOKYO, May 26 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is planning not to specify where a key U.S.
Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture will be moved to when he sets a course for
its relocation within the prefecture later this week, taking into consideration
stiff opposition from one of the ruling coalition partners, government sources
said Wednesday.
But the coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, said it will not
endorse the government's forthcoming policy as long as Hatoyama is considering
moving the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station from the densely populated
Ginowan to a coastal area near the Henoko district in Nago, also in the
prefecture.
SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima, who serves as consumer minister, said she will not
sign a Cabinet resolution if the Henoko area is mentioned as a relocation site
in a joint statement to be released later this week by Japan and the United
States, even if the government omits its name in its policy.
Fukushima, speaking at a news conference, said the government ''will never be
able to win people's support with such a double standard.''
Hatoyama unveiled the latest plan just over the weekend, but the government is
now unlikely to include the word Henoko in a relocation policy it aims to adopt
Friday in a Cabinet meeting, the sources said.
''I will continue consultations (with the SDP),'' Hatoyama told reporters. ''I
think the coalition will be maintained steadily.''
Hatoyama also said it is natural to collect signatures from all of his Cabinet
members when the government endorses its policy on the relocation.
Some SDP members have insisted that the party leave the eight-month-old
tripartite coalition, saying the latest plan contradicts what Hatoyama promised
ahead of last summer's general election that he would seek to relocate the base
''at least outside the prefecture.''
Fukushima suggested, however, the party will not leave immediately as the
government still has a lot to do on the Futenma issue. Asked whether she would
quit as a minister given the disagreement, she also indicated it is Hatoyama
who will make a decision.
Later Wednesday, Kantoku Teruya, an SDP lower house member representing an
Okinawa constituency, expressed his intention to leave the party if it decides
to remain in the coalition if Henoko is named in the upcoming Japan-U.S.
statement.
Teruya, who serves as the party's Diet affairs chief, was speaking in the
prefecture.
The SDP has also been dissatisfied with Hatoyama's way of handling the
relocation issue, saying his government has given an agreement between Japan
and the United States priority over other important arrangements.
In pledging to settle the issue by the end of May, Hatoyama had said he would
seek by then an acceptance from all the major parties concerned -- the three
governing coalition parties, the United States and whoever would host Futenma's
replacement facility -- over a government relocation proposal.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano briefed the SDP on the latest plan
Wednesday afternoon.
During the meeting, Hirano told the SDP that the government is giving ''due
consideration'' to the concerns of the party, SDP Secretary General Yasumasa
Shigeno told reporters.
Hirano said at a news conference later in the day that Japan and the United
States will likely finalize the details of how to relocate the Futenma air
station, such as construction methods to be used, by around ''late August or
early September.''
Japan and the United States are making final arrangements to issue a joint
statement on what they have so far agreed on possibly Thursday, when Hatoyama
is expected to speak with U.S. President Barack Obama by phone to facilitate
the plan to relocate the Futenma air base to Cape Henoko near the Marines' Camp
Schwab, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
Hatoyama is also expected to make his own statement Friday on the base issue,
focusing on explaining that his government is committed to reducing Okinawa's
burden of hosting the bulk of U.S. military forces in Japan under a bilateral
security accord. The government said Monday that a press conference by Hatoyama
is scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.
==Kyodo
2010-05-26 23:32:54