April 30, 2010
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Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has stressed that his government has never been inconsistent over the relocation of the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa.
On Friday Hatoyama replied to a reporter who asked why the government is in a confused and inconsistent state over the relocation issue.
Hatoyama explained that the government is trying to forge a plan by the end of May, as announced.
He said the plan is based on the candidate sites and the combined input of the people of Okinawa and the United States.He said that if all those ideas are combined into one, the final task would be to gain public understanding. Hatoyama added that he now plans to work towards this.
Hatoyama's government has been exploring ideas to revise a 2006 relocation plan with the United States. This has included building a semi-offshore airfield in a coastal area of US Marine Camp Schwab in less populated Nago city.
Hatoyama's final consideration is a modification of the agreed plan. It would include building a runway in shallow waters, and moving as many Futenma functions as possible to Tokunoshima Island, 200 kilometers north of Okinawa.
But the people of both Okinawa and Tokunoshima have held massive rallies to protest the idea.
2010/04/30 12:10(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)
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