Top U.S. military commander in Japan says Kadena option difficult

TOKYO, Oct. 29 Kyodo - The top commander of U.S. forces in Japan told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Thursday it would be difficult to realize Okada's suggested plan of transferring the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture to the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base, Japanese government sources said.

U.S. Forces Japan Commander Lt. Gen. Edward Rice cited difficulties with the
plan from the viewpoint of military operations during talks with Okada and
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. The talks in Tokyo were aimed at
discussing the Futemma issue as it is emerging as a headache for Japan-U.S.
ties.
''Most of the talks consisted of the U.S. side offering explanations,''
Kitazawa told reporters after the talks without elaborating.
It is rare for officials of the U.S. forces in Japan to directly provide
explanations on any matter with Japanese foreign and defense ministers both in
attendance. The meeting was realized following a request from Okada and he is
expected to continue talks with the U.S. officials on Friday.
The United States is pressing the new Japanese government, launched in
September, to implement the U.S. forces realignment as agreed in 2006 despite
Tokyo's hope for an alternative arrangement.
Tokyo and Washington agreed in May 2006, after years of discussions, to
relocate Futemma from downtown Ginowan to coastal areas in Nago, also in
Okinawa, as part of measures to realign the U.S. military forces in Japan.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said during campaigning for the House of
Representatives election in August that he will seek for Futemma to be
relocated ''at least outside the prefecture'' when he launches his government.
But he has been recently only saying he is the one who will make the final
decision on the matter amid what appears to be differing opinions among some of
his Cabinet members.
Kitazawa has suggested accepting the plan as agreed on between Japan and the
United States, but Okada told Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima and others on
Thursday that he is considering the possibility of merging Futemma's heliport
functions with Kadena as his ''personal'' idea, according to the attendees of
the talks.
The Kadena merger plan has been considered during past bilateral talks, but was
dismissed after U.S. military authorities failed to agree on it.
According to the government sources, Rice and other U.S. officials explained in
detail about the difficulty of realizing the Kadena merger plan by using
charts, stressing that relocating Futemma to Nago as agreed is the best idea.
In a related move, Kadena town officials said Thursday that a ruling camp
lawmaker has presented the same merger idea to the town by setting a 15-year
time limit.
The officials declined to identify the politician apparently due to the
sensitivity of the issue.
The new proposal has also triggered criticism from the town of Kadena, which
fears noise pollution will worsen, with Mayor Tokujitsu Miyagi saying, ''I'm
opposed to the plan. It can't be accepted at all.''
On the proposal by the unidentified lawmaker, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi
Hirano said at a press conference the government is not involved in it.
The Kadena officials said the lawmaker proposed on Oct. 4 that the central
government and the Okinawa prefectural government sign a memorandum on a
15-year time limit for the U.S. military to keep the relocated Futemma
functions and that they seek to move the base eventually to Guam or the
mainland of the United States.
As a way of reducing noise pollution from the base, the politician also
proposed a transfer outside Okinawa for half of the 28 F-15 fighters deployed
at Kadena and a ban on training for aircraft that do not belong to Kadena.
The lawmaker also called for a ban on the use of the Kadena facility by Japan's
Self-Defense Forces aircraft while urging the Cabinet of Hatoyama to decide
within one year on the return of military-occupied land in southern Okinawa and
the compilation of measures to promote the prefecture's economy.
Nakaima, who met Thursday respectively with Okada and Kitazawa along with
base-hosting local municipality heads in Tokyo, said he has not heard the
lawmaker's proposal yet and would like to confirm it.
The governor, who accepts the current Japan-U.S. plan to move the Futemma
facility to Nago, repeated his request that the central government not rush to
a conclusion on the Futemma transfer issue. He complained that remarks by
Cabinet members suggest different directions almost daily, baffling Okinawans.
Kitazawa said he reaffirmed in his meeting with Nakaima that Hatoyama will make
the final decision on the matter and that Cabinet members are presenting their
own ideas for examination by the premier in the process of finalizing the
government's position.
Later in the day, a group of ruling lawmakers elected from Okinawa requested to
Kitazawa that heliport functions of the Futemma air station be moved to Iwoto
Island, about 1,200 kilometers south of Tokyo, which was formerly occupied by
the United States when it was still known as Iwojima.
Shokichi Kina, a Democratic Party of Japan member of the House of Councillors
from Okinawa, told reporters Kitazawa said he would include the Iwoto plan as
one of many options.
==Kyodo
2009-10-29 22:59:27