Fukushima: Futenma should be relocated abroad

April 13, 2010

A cabinet minister who heads a junior coalition party in Japan is urging the government to seriously consider moving the US Futenma Air Station from Okinawa to US territories in the South Pacific.

Consumer Affairs Minister Mizuho Fukushima, who heads the Social Democratic Party, raised the call when she met reporters on Tuesday.

Fukushima said officials of Tinian Island, in the Northern Mariana Islands, told her party's visiting delegation that they would welcome there the relocation of the Futenma base.

She said although Tinian is willing to let the US Marines use an existing runway on the island, other members of the cabinet are not taking the offer seriously enough.

Fukushima said the Futenma base should be relocated outside Japan to the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam or elsewhere.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to settle the relocation issue by the end of May.

2010/04/13 12:10(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)