April 13, 2010WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he has told U.S. President Barack Obama that Japan will settle the issue of relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture by the end of May.
However, Hatoyama declined to say how Obama responded.
Hatoyama told reporters in Washington that he asked Obama to cooperate in settling the sticky issue. "I told President Obama, 'Negotiations are going on between Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, so I'd like you to cooperate.'"
Hatoyama then told the president, "I will reach a settlement by the end of May." The two leaders held their unofficial summit talks during the banquet of the Nuclear Security Summit on Monday night.
Hatoyama denied that he specified any candidate for the relocation site, but he underscored the need to move as many of Futenma base's functions out of Okinawa Prefecture as possible.
"I told President Obama, 'It is necessary to lessen Okinawa's burden in order to develop the Japan-U.S. alliance in a sustainable way,'" the prime minister told reporters at a hotel in Washington.
The prime minister emphasized that Tokyo needs to gain consent for the relocation of Futenma base from Washington. "Of course, we can't settle the issue unless we talk with the United States."
The government is considering a plan to relocate most of the helicopter units at Futenma base in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, and the rest of them to a helipad to be built in the inland area of U.S. military Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.
It was the third summit meeting between Hatoyama and Obama following one on the occasion of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York in September last year and during Obama's visit to Japan in November.
During the talks in Tokyo, Hatoyama pledged to make a final decision on relocating Futenma at an early date, saying, "Trust me."
In December, however, the government postponed the deadline for settling the matter from the end of last year until the end of May.
Hatoyama sought to meet with Obama during an international conference on global warming countermeasures in Copenhagen in mid-December, but Washington rejected the proposal.
During the Nuclear Security Summit, the United States declined to arrange official summit talks between Hatoyama and Obama as requested by Japan, but instead agreed to hold the unofficial meeting during the banquet.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) April 13, 2010
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