April 10, 2010The government is leaning toward proposing to relocate U.S. Marines Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, government sources said.
The proposal is based on instructions Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama gave at a meeting of Cabinet ministers strongly in favor of moving Futenma base out of Okinawa. The government is set to officially propose the plan to the United States and local governments that would host substitute facilities for the base.
Under the plan, most of the Marine Corps helicopter units, which have about 60 helicopters, would be relocated to Tokunoshima Island, where they would mainly use Tokunoshima Airport's runway. The remaining helicopter units would be moved to the inland area of the U.S. military's Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, where a new helipad would be built.
The government is likely to abandon a plan to relocate Futenma base to a manmade island to be built off the White Beach district of Uruma, Okinawa Prefecture after Washington rejected it as unfeasible.
Genzo Inoue, director general of the Defense Ministry's Bureau of Local Cooperation, sought to meet Akira Okubo, mayor of the town of Isen on Tokunoshima Island, to discuss the plan, but the mayor declined.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met Friday with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos to discuss the plan. However, it is likely to take some time before Washington clarifies operational difficulties involved in the relocation, according to the sources.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 10, 2010
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