Apr 24 08:04 PM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 25 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The government is considering constructing an offshore pile- supported platform at a site for the relocation of the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station, instead of fully reclaiming a coastal area in the city of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, government sources said Saturday.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa has told Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that the proposed construction would make it easier for the government to gain consent from local communities than carrying out reclamation as planned under a 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement, the sources said, adding Hatoyama did not rule out considering the idea.
The construction, involving a platform supported by steel pillars driven into the seabed, is seen as less damaging to the environment than reclamation. Part of the area will still need to be reclaimed even if the pile-supported platform method is adopted.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos during their meeting Friday that the government is considering modifying the current plan agreed under the bilateral deal, they said.
Under the agreement, forged as part of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, the heliport functions of the Futemma base will be transferred to an airfield to be constructed in part of Camp Schwab and on artificial land to be reclaimed in the nearby sea.
Japan and the United States have agreed to build two runways in a V- shaped configuration in the Henoko coastal area in Nago by reclaiming land. The completion of the project is targeted for 2014.
Moving the proposed airfield offshore would minimize U.S. military flights over a residential area in Nago and require only one runway, according to the sources.
The government has sounded out Washington through diplomatic channels on the possibility of adopting the construction method and the U.S. side has not shown as much reluctance as it previously did, the sources said.
Hatoyama is seeking to resolve by the end of May a dispute over where to relocate the Futemma facility. His government has been considering relocating the base to Tokunoshima, a Kagoshima Prefecture island about 200 kilometers northeast of the main island of Okinawa, but the idea has met fierce opposition from the island's municipalities.
The United States conveyed to Japan during unofficial working-level talks in mid-April that a U.S. Marine helicopter unit should not be based more than 65 nautical miles, or 120 km, from the Marines on the ground when it rejected a proposal for relocation to Tokunoshima. It also said Tokunoshima does not have the necessary infrastructure to house Marines.
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