TOKYO, Jan. 25 KYODOJanuary 25 2009 12:45
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday that when considering where to relocate a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa the central government does not need to take into account the victory in Sunday's mayoral election in the Okinawa city of Nago of a challenger opposed to hosting the base.
He said a government committee studying the relocation issue will not exclude the current plan to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan, another Okinawa city, to Nago from its options, adding that the panel will search for ''the best place'' from a clean slate.
Susumu Inamine, 64, an opponent of Futemma's relocation to his less densely populated city, beat the incumbent mayor, who had expressed willingness to accept the relocation plan.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called Inamine's victory a ''manifestation of the popular will,'' telling reporters outside his official residence that he wants to offer congratulations to Inamine and his supporters.
Noting that the panel is ''energetically'' studying the relocation issue, he said, ''We have said the state will responsibly reach a conclusion on this issue by the end of May'' by conducting a ''zero-base'' review including all options. ''We will implement it without fail,'' he added.
Speaking at a morning news conference, Hirano said, ''As we consider the issue, there is no reason why we have to take that (the election results) into account.''
The panel ''has yet to take the position that it should remove'' the existing plan from its consideration, the top government spokesman also said.
The panel, which Hirano chairs, is exploring an alternative to the existing plan to move Futemma's flight operations to a new facility to be built at the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago without excluding the plan.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa separately told reporters Monday morning that the government must ''take extremely seriously'' the outcome of the Nago mayoral poll and ''overcome difficulties'' in trying to reach a conclusion on the Futemma transfer.
The Defense Ministry does not plan to halt environmental assessment procedures for the existing relocation plan, and Cabinet ministers are expected to talk about what to do following the poll, the minister indicated.
The panel headed by Hirano has been looking into the relocation issue from scratch, he added. ''It is not good that there is a trend to put a lot of pressure on locals to make a choice on an issue that must be resolved by the central government,''
he said.
Kitazawa also said the election reflected rising expectations among local citizens that the heliport functions of the Futemma base will be moved out of the prefecture or even abroad after the government led by Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan came to power last September.
During the campaign for the House of Representatives election last August, Hatoyama advocated moving the facility out of Okinawa or out of Japan altogether.
The Futemma relocation is part of a broader agreement on the reconfiguration of U.S. forces in Japan forged between Japan and the United States in 2006, and is linked to the transfer of about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014.
==Kyodo
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