Apr 14 07:55 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 14 (AP) - (Kyodo) — An aide to Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg in the United States on Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said.
Tadakatsu Sano, an aide to Hatoyama on political affairs, is involved in the Japanese government's work to explore alternatives to the planned relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa and is expected to discuss the matter with the senior U.S. diplomat.
Sano accompanied Hatoyama to Washington, where the Japanese leader attended the Nuclear Security Summit, which ended Tuesday. While Hatoyama left for Japan later in the day, Sano has stayed on.
At a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, Hirano said Sano will not discuss the base issue with Steinberg given that Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada has served as Japan's point man for talks with the United States over the matter.
But the top government spokesman declined to elaborate on what Sano and Steinberg will discuss during the meeting.
Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama talked informally during a working dinner of the security summit on Monday, with Hatoyama promising Obama a conclusion on where to relocate the Futemma Air Station by the end of next month.
He also asked the president to understand the need to ease the base- hosting burden on residents of Okinawa, where the bulk of U.S. military facilities in Japan are located, but no substantial discussions apparently took place over the matter between them.
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