Apr 21 02:41 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 21 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The government of Prime Minster Yukio Hatoyama will continue to pursue relocating a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, its top spokesman suggested Wednesday, despite being snubbed by local leaders on the island the previous day.
But with the mayors of the three towns on the island rejecting the government's request for a meeting on the possibility of the Futemma Air Station relocating there, the dispute appears to be further blanketed by a cloud of uncertainty.
"If we work hard now, there's a good possibility (of meeting with the mayors)," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a morning news conference, adding that he will consider contacting the mayors in person to seek a meeting with them.
"There is no additional plan in mind (on the part of the government)," a government source said the same day.
Hirano asked for "a little more time" before officially announcing the government's plan and seeking acceptance from any potential base host, saying, "We are looking (at the situation) from various, comprehensive angles."
Also on Wednesday, Hatoyama renewed his pledge to settle the question of where to move the Futemma base by the end of May as promised.
"While this may be very tough weather, we must bring clear May weather to it by the end of May without fail," he told reporters, alluding to clear skies associated with the month. "We are making all-out efforts to do that."
At the news conference, Hirano also admitted that he called Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Tuesday but declined to elaborate on the content of their talk.
Hirano is believed to have asked the governor to be prudent about attending a local rally scheduled for Sunday, which organizers are hoping to draw 100,000 people to oppose the relocation of the base within the southernmost prefecture.
The Hatoyama government, which seized power in a historic change of government last September, has spent months reexamining a current plan that seeks to relocate the Futemma base in the crowded city of Ginowan to a coastal area of the Marines Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa.
While the government has yet to officially announce an alternative proposal, the idea, according to government sources, is to transfer Futemma's helicopter unit to Tokunoshima, about 200 kilometers northeast of the main island of Okinawa.
But the mayors of the Tokunoshima towns have brushed aside the idea in light of last Sunday's mass protest on the island, which organizers said about 15,000 people participated in to oppose the potential relocation of the base there.
Akira Okubo, mayor of Isen on the island, has accused Hirano of acting "disingenuously" for dismissing the Tokunoshima relocation idea as a rumor when he and his fellow mayors met with the chief Cabinet secretary in Tokyo last month.
On the mayor's charge, Hirano said Wednesday, "If my remarks were received as disingenuous, I regret them," adding, "I told them that I would refrain from providing an explanation because the government is considering the matter on a zero basis."
Hatoyama asked the public to give him tips on the matter to help resolve it, noting that he is thinking hard about how to reduce the burden of hosting bases on the people of Okinawa.
The current relocation plan is the pillar of a broader agreement forged between Japan and the United States in 2006 and is linked to another pillar, the transfer of 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The relocation project is slated for completion by 2014.
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