ID :
99075
Sat, 01/09/2010 - 21:44
Auther :

Okinawa governor repeats call to move Futemma outside prefecture+

NAHA, Japan, Jan. 9 Kyodo -
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on
Saturday that prefectural residents are insistent that the U.S. Marine Corps'
Futemma Air Station be relocated outside the southwestern Japanese prefecture.
''Prefectural residents hope to see the air station moved outside of the
prefecture. Please do answer'' their call, Nakaima told Hirano during their
meeting at the Okinawa prefectural government office in Naha, officials
accompanying the top central government spokesman said.
After the meeting with Hirano, Nakaima told reporters he has no thoughts at all
of studying Shimoji Island or Ie Island in the prefecture as a possible
relocation site, as has been considered within Japan's ruling coalition.
Hirano, who chairs a new government panel on the issue, flew to Okinawa Friday
to hear the opinions of the local government and prefectural residents on the
matter.
He told the governor that the central government is making efforts to reach a
conclusion by May but also suggested the possibility that the central
government may end up having to ask Okinawa to bear some burden such as
accepting part of the air station's functions.
''We may have to ask for your decision,'' Hirano was quoted by the officials as
telling the Okinawa governor.
Hirano later told reporters that while the panel will consider the issue from
scratch, there may be cases in which the central government may ask the local
government for a ''political decision'' in the course of deliberations.
Nakaima also reiterated the prefecture's call for reviewing the 1960 Japan-U.S.
Status of Forces Agreement and for taking tentative measures such as moving
some training programs at the U.S. air station to other sites before the
eventual relocation.
As for the review of the SOFA, Hirano said the central government has been
discussing it with the United States ''based on a relationship of trust,''
according to the officials.
Later on Saturday, Hirano visited the Futemma Air Station, the U.S. Kadena Air
Base and the Marines' Camp Schwab's coastal area in the Henoko district of
Nago, and met with mayors of local communities hosting the Kadena base.
Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 to move Futemma's heliport functions
to an airfield planned for a less densely populated area on the coastline of
Camp Schwab as part of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.
But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who formed his government last September,
has reviewed the 2006 agreement reached by the previous government, promoting
the idea of moving the air station out of Okinawa, or even outside Japan, to
ease base-hosting burdens on local people.
As for the relocation site, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada once proposed
consolidating the Futemma facility into the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base.
Hatoyama says he plans to reach a final conclusion by May while exploring the
possibility of an alternative site without excluding the relocation site
specified in the bilateral agreement.
==Kyodo

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