Defense minister Kitazawa to visit Okinawa next week+

TOKYO, Jan. 14 Kyodo -
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Friday he plans to visit Okinawa
Prefecture soon to seek local understanding over a Japan-U.S. accord to
relocate a U.S. military base within the prefecture.
Kitazawa, who retained his post in Friday's Cabinet reshuffle, is expected to
fly to Okinawa on Wednesday and meet the following day with Okinawa Gov.
Hirokazu Nakaima, who is calling for the transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps'
Futenma Air Station outside of the prefecture, according to Defense Ministry
sources.
''I intend to do my utmost to fully secure the understanding of the people of
Okinawa,'' Kitazawa told reporters. ''Now that I have been reappointed, I want
to visit Okinawa before the regular Diet session begins.''
The parliamentary session is expected to be convened on Jan. 24.
Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who was also reappointed in the reshuffle, told
a press conference Friday night that he will visit Okinawa later this month in
a bid to secure local consent for the Futenma transfer plan.
The foreign minister last made a trip to the southern island prefecture in late
December.
Local opposition to the bilateral accord, which calls for relocating the
Futenma base from a crowded residential area in Ginowan to a less densely
populated coastal area in Nago -- both on Okinawa's main island -- remains
strong in the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces in
Japan.
Maehara vowed to work closely with Kitazawa, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and new
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, who concurrently serves as a state
minister in charge of Okinawa, to implement the Japan-U.S. accord on the
relocation of the base.
He also told reporters that he sought, during his meeting with U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday, the early return of some sites in Okinawa
occupied by U.S. military facilities under a package deal so as to lessen the
base-hosting burden on local people sooner than planned.
Gates ''did not sound negative'' about the request, Maehara said.
The current Japan-U.S. accord links the relocation of Futenma with the return
of land occupied by military facilities south of the U.S. Kadena Air Base and
the transfer of 8,000 Marines to Guam.
==Kyodo
2011-01-14 23:18:58