Apr 9 01:07 PM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 10 (AP) - (Kyodo) — The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will focus on a plan to transfer a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, north of Okinawa, Japanese government sources said Friday.
The government has met opposition from the United States on a plan to construct an artificial island off the Katsuren Peninsula in eastern Okinawa, which has been floated as an eventual relocation site for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in the southernmost prefecture, the sources said.
In a meeting last Friday, the Cabinet ministers concerned agreed to move the functions of the Futemma facility, currently in Ginowan, temporarily to Tokunoshima and build a heliport at the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa, and eventually to the island to be constructed near the peninsula in Uruma, according to the sources.
But Hatoyamma, who leads the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, has apparently decided to place priority on Tokunoshima instead of the artificial island, telling the ministers that he wants them to concentrate their efforts on negotiating on the relocation with the United States and people in Tokunoshima, the sources said.
Residents of the island, however, have already voiced strong opposition to the government's plan, with Akira Okubo, head of the town of Isen on the island, saying, "I will be dead set against the plan whatever happens."
"Should we ever be enticed with anything to boost our economy, which may be provided to us in exchange for hosting (a U.S. base), that would leave the next generation of people here in trouble," he said.
About 10,000 people are scheduled to stage a protest rally on the island on April 18.
On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos told Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada that the United States cannot at this moment enter into planned bilateral working-level talks on the Futemma issue, which the Japanese government was hoping to launch as early as next week, according to sources close to the matter.
Since the campaign for last year's general election, Hatoyama has been seeking an alternative to an existing plan, sealed in 2006 between a previous Liberal Democratic Party-led government and Washington, to transfer the Futemma base to a coastal section of Camp Schwab including land to be reclaimed, in a bid to ease the base-hosting burden on people in Okinawa.
But the government has encountered difficulty in finding an effective plan that can gain approval from the United States, which is pressing Japan to stick to the existing deal, and from people living near in a possible relocation site.
On March 26, Okada conveyed to Roos that Tokyo is planning to move part of the facility's functions to the heliport at Camp Schwab and eventually to the envisaged artificial island or Tokunoshima Island.
But the island construction plan has raised eyebrows among U.S. officials, according to the sources, who argue that it will likely spark a strong backlash from local people, as has the existing plan.
Local seaweed growers and lawmakers from the DPJ's two minor coalition partners -- the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party -- are also opposed to the artificial island plan.
The existing relocation plan is part of a broader realignment plan for U.S. forces in Japan, including a plan to transfer 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam.
The Hatoyama government, which is seeking to resolve the base issue by the end of May, has been tight-lipped about its relocation options and has not officially announced its final plan.
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