April 24, 2010
Tokyo, April 24 (Jiji Press) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Saturday reiterated his intention of not allowing the U.S. Futenma air station in Okinawa Prefecture to be moved to an offshore area of the Henoko district of the city of Nago in the same southernmost prefecture.
The relocation option cannot be accepted, Hatoyama told reporters in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, eastern Japan, stressing that reclaiming an area of waters off the Henoko district to build a replacement facility would be "blasphemy against the nature."
Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps base, now located in Ginowan, another city in Okinawa, to the Henoko district, where the Marines' Camp Schwab is.
Hatoyama, who has only some one month to resolve the base row, thus made it clear that there is no change in his stance of opposing the Futenma transfer to the Camp Schwab offshore area.
Hatoyama has repeatedly said that he is determined to reach a decision by the end of May on a site to relocate the base as his administration is reviewing the 2006 agreement, while the U.S. government argues that the Camp Schwab offshore plan is the best of all options.
(2010/04/24-20:19)
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