Apr 28 12:37 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, April 28 (Kyodo) — A former lower house lawmaker, who is said to have a lot of influence in Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Wednesday rejected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's idea of relocating a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture there.
Hatoyama visited the bedridden Torao Tokuda, who heads a major medical institution, at his home in Tokyo and sought his understanding and support for the idea, according to Tokuda's second son and lower house lawmaker Takeshi Tokuda.
In response, the senior Tokuda was quoted as saying, "A U.S. base is not acceptable, but I want to do something to be respectful to the prime minister." Takeshi, a member of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party who sat in on the one-hour meeting, did not elaborate on what his father meant by "respectful."
Tokuda's son said he will hold a press conference later in the day after meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano.
Among various ideas, the Hatoyama government has been considering transferring the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station, located in the center of a residential area, to Tokunoshima, 200 kilometers northeast of Okinawa, to keep the prime minister's general election promise made last year to move the base outside the southernmost prefecture.
But local residents are dead set against the idea of hosting the U.S. military facility.
Tokuda hails from Tokunoshima and had been elected four times to the House of Representatives before retiring from politics in 2005.
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