January 27, 2010The future of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma remains uncertain in the wake of the recent election in Nago, Okinawa -- the planned site of a new base -- and comments by senior Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) figures that suggested the current relocation plan may go ahead.
With the anti-base faction victory in the recent Nago mayoral election, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano has repeatedly said that moving ahead with the current base relocation plan remains one of a number of options. There has been no progress, however, within the government and the ruling parties on a search for an alternate site, and one ruling coalition member has suggested Futenma air station could stay where it is.
To address the problems raised by Hirano's comments, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Tuesday night that "We must produce a final result that will be understood by the people of Nago and the people of Okinawa as a whole. I don't want to deal with this issue in an overbearing manner, but in a way that can gain understanding."
At a press conference that afternoon, Hirano suggested that agreement from local bodies was not necessary to move the air station into their jurisdictions, stating "If we don't get (local) agreement, does that mean nothing moves forward? I wish to study that question thoroughly. There may also be legal means (of moving the base to a new site)." Hirano declined to comment when asked for a concrete example.
Meanwhile, the governing parties' Okinawa caucus met Tuesday to object to Hirano's suggestion that "there is no reason we must take local opinion into account," made after the Nago election. Following the meeting, Social Democratic Party (SDP) lawmaker Kantoku Teruya lashed out at Hirano, saying, "Never mind it being rude, I'd like to give him a slap. I doubt his political instincts."
Mixed views on Hirano's comments also emerged at the press conference following a Cabinet meeting Tuesday evening.
"Hirano's statements leave the impression we will completely ignore local opinion," said Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. "He has to be careful how he says things." However, Okada also said that "If land reclamation (for construction of the new base) is required, it becomes a matter of gubernatorial jurisdiction. As a legal issue, then, the answer becomes just like the chief Cabinet secretary said," seeking to clarify Hirano's comments.
State Minister for Okinawa Affairs Seiji Maehara expressed understanding of Hirano's position, saying, "As a country, we must think that leaving security and defense up to local areas is a problem."
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa met with Hirano at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday, informing him that an environmental assessment of the coast off of Camp Schwab in Nago -- necessary for construction on the new base to begin and due to be submitted to prefectural and other authorities by early February -- had begun. Last October, Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima submitted a document to the Defense Ministry calling for the new air station runway to be built offshore "to the greatest extent possible" -- a proposal given consideration but put on hold for fear it would influence the Nago mayoral election.
The start of the environmental assessment on the site in Nago once again emphasizes that the original relocation plan remains on the table as a destination for the Futenma air station, despite the majority of Nago voters who expressed their wish to see the base moved out of the prefecture.
"If the current relocation plan is still just one of many options, why would they submit an environmental assessment?" a senior prefectural official pointed out. "It just invites unnecessary confusion."
Driving the central government's insistence on keeping the original relocation plan afloat despite the results of the Nago election is concern for the attitude of the United States. After the results of the election, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley stated that the U.S. call for the original relocation plan to go forward had not changed, laying the groundwork for Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell's February visit to Japan.
Hatoyama, Hirano and other government figures "have apparently started to look at hedging their bets on relations with the United States," says one senior Foreign Ministry official. "If only they'd done that sooner."
Meanwhile, even as debate over the relocation of the Futenma air station continues, the government and ruling parties have failed to investigate alternate locations for the base, raising the possibility "the most dangerous air base in the world" will remain where it is, in Ginowan, Okinawa.
"If Futenma itself is not moved, then we may ask that the base's helicopters to move to and train at (Maritime Self-Defense Force) Omura Air Base (in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture)," said People's New Party Chairman Mikio Shimoji on Tuesday at a meeting with Omura Mayor Takashi Matsumoto at the party's headquarters, as they called on the mayor for cooperation.
The continued existence of Futenma is under consideration, as is moving training flights to Kansai International Airport or Camp Fuji (in Shizuoka Prefecture), according to Shimoji, a member of the ruling collation.
Meanwhile, an SDP meeting on Tuesday eliminated Iwo Jima (Iwo To) -- under the jurisdiction of greater Tokyo -- as a possible relocation site, bringing the SDP closer to recommending the U.S. territory of Guam -- long the party's favorite for relocation outside Okinawa.
Should the government move ahead with relocating Futenma to Nago there will likely be a popular backlash within Okinawa Prefecture, leading to serious political consequences for Gov. Nakaima, who has the power to approve the landfill operation to build the new runway. However, should Hatoyama fail to broker a solution to the base relocation issue by the end of May -- a deadline he set for himself and has regularly repeated -- it would strike another blow at already touchy relations between Japan and the United States.
(Mainichi Japan) January 27, 2010
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