Japan has not promised to decide on Futemma issue by year-end: Hatoyama+

SINGAPORE, Nov. 14 Kyodo -
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Saturday that Japan has not
promised the United States that it will come to a conclusion by the end of this
year on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa
Prefecture.

''We have not made any promise that we will come up with a conclusion by the
end of this year,'' Hatoyama, who is in Singapore to attend a meeting of the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, told reporters.
He was referring to a high-level joint working group that the Japanese and U.S.
governments have recently set up to discuss the relocation of the Futemma
facility in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.
Hatoyama also stressed that the working group is not designed to discuss the
matter on the premise that both governments will implement the 2006 bilateral
accord to transfer the facility to a less densely populated area in Nago,
another city in the southernmost prefecture.
''President (Barack) Obama may think that the agreement will be the basis (for
the group's negotiations), but if the answer is already there, it would be
pointless to create a (new) working group,'' he said.
The comments came after the U.S. president said Friday after talks with
Hatoyama that the United States and Japan ''have set up a high-level working
group that will focus on the implementation of the agreement that the two
governments reached.''
Hatoyama apparently reiterated that his government will continue to seek an
alternative plan to alleviate the burden on people in Okinawa, which hosts the
bulk of U.S. forces in Japan.
On the timing for reaching a conclusion, Hatoyama also repeated his view that
he wants to assess the results of the mayoral election in Nago and possibly the
Okinawa gubernatorial election later next year.
After Friday's talks, Hatoyama told a press conference that he told Obama
during their talks that he wants the group to come to a conclusion on the issue
''as soon as possible,'' while Obama said he hopes ''to implement this work
expeditiously.''
In reference to the agreement reached Friday between the two to start one-year
consultations on the Japan-U.S. alliance, the prime minister said how to deal
with intelligence and defense systems and how to utilize space will likely be
discussed at a ministerial level.
On Friday, the two leaders agreed to deepen bilateral ties prior to next year's
50th anniversary of the revision of the Japan-U.S. security treaty.
Obama left Tokyo for Singapore on Saturday afternoon, also to attend the APEC
summit.
==Kyodo
2009-11-14 23:05:05