Apr 28 06:25 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is set to visit Okinawa Prefecture on May 4 to hold talks with the local governor amid efforts to settle the dispute over where to relocate a U.S. Marine base in the island prefecture, government sources said Wednesday.
As Hatoyama's self-imposed deadline of May 31 to settle the issue nears, he is hoping to explain to Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, whose stance has come closer to opposing a relocation within Okinawa, about a plan believed to add an environmental angle to the existing Japan- U.S. accord to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station within Okinawa.
"The schedule has yet to be confirmed, but I would like to visit Okinawa and meet Gov. Nakaima at the earliest possible date," Hatoyama told reporters at his office in the evening.
Also on Wednesday, the premier suggested transferring up to 1,000 Marines in Futemma to Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, when he met in Tokyo with a former House of Representatives lawmaker Torao Tokuda, who is said to wield a lot of influence on the island, Tokuda's son said.
But Tokuda dismissed the suggestion, according to Takeshi Tokuda, a lower house member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Nakaima told reporters in Okinawa that he will meet with the prime minister if the government so desires, saying, "Certainly I will accept (a request to meet). It would be rude not to meet the prime minister."
But some inside the government have reservations over Hatoyama's possible visit to Okinawa, as the government has yet to finalize its proposal on the relocation issue and is unable to engage in full- fledged talks about it with the United States.
The latest development coincided with a visit to Japan by a senior U.S. State Department official, who held talks with Japanese foreign and defense ministry officials the same day over the Futemma issue and other matters.
"Japan and the United States agreed to continue to cooperate to deepen the alliance," the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in its press release issued after the talks, referring to a bilateral process that is taking place as the two countries mark the 50th anniversary of the current bilateral security pact this year.
Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, only said after the talks that they were "good."
Before coming to Japan, the top U.S. diplomat for Asia said in Hong Kong on Monday that Tokyo's recent proposals in relation to the issue are "encouraging," without elaborating on what has actually been discussed between the two countries.
As Japan struggles to work out a final government plan on the issue, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa met with Hatoyama in the morning and presented a set of proposals for modifying the 2006 bilateral accord to relocate the Futemma base from Ginowan to a coastal area of the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa.
The proposals include building a pile-supported platform in shallow waters off the coast of Nago instead of reclaiming a large part of the sea nearby, the government sources said.
A senior government official said the prime minister believes it is important to "consider the impact on the environment" and that the proposals presented are the result of work done by the Defense Ministry.
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