REFILING: 3RD LD: Hatoyama says Japan coming closer to forming policy on Futemma+

TOKYO, Dec. 8 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Tuesday his government is coming closer to
forming a policy on the issue of where to relocate a U.S. military airfield in
Okinawa Prefecture, one that has grown into a row threatening to sour the
Japan-U.S. alliance.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, meanwhile, said the same day that government
officials have begun discussing an alternative site to the one to which Japan
and the United States agreed to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air
Station.
''We've come fairly close to the saturation point,'' Hatoyama told reporters
after he discussed the Futemma issue with such ministers as Defense Minister
Toshimi Kitazawa and Okada, who are in charge of negotiating with U.S.
officials over the issue.
Hatoyama added that there are still things to be discussed among them before
reaching a conclusion.
Japan and the United States agreed in May 2006 to relocate the facility to a
less crowded part of the southern island, but Hatoyama's government has
revisited the plan, saying that ways must be explored to reduce base-hosting
burdens on the Okinawa people.
Earlier Tuesday, Okada said the government is discussing an alternative site to
a replacement facility to be built under the agreement, saying there has
emerged talk of ''looking for an alternative.''
The matter and others, such as a need to take heed of the arguments of a party
threatening to leave the ruling coalition over the issue and a possible delay
in reaching decisions on the relocation, have gone beyond the bounds of a
bilateral working group tasked with resolving the issue early, he said at a
news conference.
Okada added Japan and the United States have thus suspended discussions at the
high-level group and expressed plans to wait until the government comes up with
its policy on the matter before continuing discussions in the settings.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano indicated the same day that
Japan could ask the United States to take measures to reduce such burdens
before reaching a conclusion on the facility's relocation.
''The biggest priority for the Japanese side is to reduce burdens on the people
of Okinawa,'' the top government spokesman said at a news conference. Noting
the risks of accidents and noise pollution the airfield has posed to local
residents, he said, ''It's a precondition for the Japanese government to place
priority on coping with them.''
While Japan continues to review that part of a broader bilateral agreement on
the reconfiguration of U.S. forces in Japan, including considering the
possibility of moving the facility out of the southernmost prefecture,
Washington has pressed Tokyo to close the case by the end of the year by
sticking to the deal as agreed.
Hatoyama has recently indicated that Tokyo may not reach a conclusion on
Futemma's relocation site by the end of this year. Japan, he said, would inform
the United States of its policy by Dec. 18, when he may meet with U.S.
President Barack Obama in Copenhagen on the fringes of a U.N. climate
conference.
Hatoyama has noted, however, that such a policy may not necessarily involve a
conclusion on the relocation site.
On the possibility of Hatoyama directly informing Obama of his government's
policy on the issue, Hirano said Tuesday that Tokyo and Washington are making
arrangements for a bilateral summit in the Danish capital but added that both
leaders are expected to have tight schedules there.
Earlier in the day, Kitazawa said Japan will earmark in its fiscal 2010 budget
expenses related to the realignment of U.S. forces involving the relocation of
the Futemma facility and the transfer of 8,000 Marines from the island to Guam.
''The prime minister has approved the allocation,'' which is required under the
2006 accord, the minister said at a news conference. The move suggests Tokyo is
attempting to assuage Washington's concerns over the base relocation.
The accord stipulates that the Futemma facility, located in a crowded
residential area of Ginowan, will be moved to the less densely populated city
of Nago on the island by 2014.
But during election campaigning before his Democratic Party of Japan came to
power in September, Hatoyama pledged that he would seek to move the Futemma
facility out of Okinawa.
Kitazawa told Tuesday's press conference that about 50 billion yen will be
earmarked for the Marines' transfer to the U.S. territory of Guam in Japan's
fiscal 2010 budget.
He left Japan for the island later in the day to inspect Andersen Air Force
Base, which is to host the Marines when they are moved from Okinawa, and
examine how projects to build new accommodation facilities have been going.
The Social Democratic Party, which has threatened to leave Hatoyama's
three-party coalition government if the government decides to move Futemma
elsewhere on the island, has proposed moving the facility to Guam as an
alternative site.
Kitazawa denied news reports that the Defense Ministry is studying the
feasibility of relocating the Futemma facility to Mage Island in Kagoshima
Prefecture.
==Kyodo
2009-12-08 23:51:58