Apr 26 09:03 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, April 26 (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Monday did not deny weekend reports that Japan has proposed to the United States slightly modifying the existing plan for relocating a U.S. Marine base within Okinawa Prefecture, while pledging to reduce burdens on Okinawa in light of Sunday's massive protest rally there.
"I am sorry, but we are seriously studying a government plan right now, so at this stage I cannot say 'yes' or 'no' to each idea. Please understand that," Hatoyama said at his office in the evening as reporters bombarded him with questions.
He made the comments following media reports on the weekend that Tokyo has indicated it will broadly accept the 2006 deal to transfer the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station from the center of a residential area in Ginowan to a less crowded part of the southernmost prefecture with some changes.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, meanwhile, denied the possibility that the government will end up accepting the existing plan as it is, telling a press conference that a reversion to the plan "won't happen."
"If that happens, what have we been studying for all these six or seven months? And it wouldn't help reduce their burden," he said.
Hatoyama said the government is focusing on two things -- the alleviation of the burden of hosting U.S. military forces and the removal of safety risks posted by the Futemma air station -- in order to settle the dispute by his self-imposed deadline of the end of May.
Also on Monday, heads of several Okinawa cities and local assemblymen visited ministers in Tokyo to demand that the central government drop all plans to transfer the Futemma airfield within the prefecture, but were only told that Tokyo has yet to decide any concrete relocation plans or when it can begin negotiations with people in an affected area, they said.
"It is unfortunate (that Tokyo has not come up with a formal proposal yet at this stage)," said Takeshi Onaga, mayor of the Okinawa capital Naha, after meeting with Hirano at the premier's office.
"Since Prime Minister Hatoyama is the first person who talked about a relocation outside the prefecture, I would like to believe his unalloyed feelings," Onaga told reporters.
"But an outcome is all about politics," he said. "I am watching with bated breath how the gravity of the premier's remarks goes."
Earlier in the day, Hatoyama said, "We certainly understand that it is one way of the public expressing its will," referring to the large demonstration against Futemma's relocation within Okinawa that took place in the Okinawa village of Yomitan on Sunday.
"As I have said, we will continue our efforts to realize the easing of the burden on people in Okinawa and the removal of the danger of Futemma," he said.
On Sunday, about 90,000 local residents and politicians, including Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, gathered in Yomitan to call for the relocation of the Futemma base outside the prefecture, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military forces in Japan.
Under the 2006 accord, Tokyo and Washington agreed to relocate the base to the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago with land reclamation as part of a broader realignment of U.S. forces stationed in Japan.
The Democratic Party of Japan-led government has been seeking an alternative site outside Okinawa since it took power last September, while Washington has pressed Tokyo to stick to the existing plan agreed to by a previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government.
According to Japanese government sources, the premier has been considering moving the Futemma facility to Tokunoshima, some 200 kilometers northeast of Okinawa, but remains unable to present it to the United States as a formal proposal due to fierce opposition from three towns on the island.
But following opposition from Tokunoshima, some of the sources said on the weekend that the Hatoyama government is mulling constructing a pile-supported runway off the coast of Nago, which is expected to reduce the impact on the local marine environment compared with the existing one requiring land reclamation.
Posts
