Apr 24 11:05 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 25 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada denied Saturday a report in the Washington Post's online edition that he had indicated Japan would broadly accept an existing plan to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps base within Okinawa Prefecture when he met U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos on Friday.
The report was immediately denied by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Okada said it was "not true."
According to the Washington Post, Okada presented a proposal in his meeting with Roos on Friday and said that Japan is moving toward accepting significant parts of a 2006 bilateral deal to move the Futemma Air Station to a coastal area in the island prefecture.
Okada, however, suggested some modifications, such as altering the design of the runway for the new air station in the Henoko coastal area in the city of Nago, the newspaper said quoting U.S. and Japanese officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
While noting that the move is "a first step," U.S. officials said Japanese officials will provide more details next week, it said.
Hatoyama told reporters in Gunma Prefecture that the report is "not exactly true," although he acknowledged that Okada and Roos held talks Friday.
He added that Japan should not accept the existing plan as reclaiming the coastal area of Henoko would be detrimental to the local environment.
The meeting between Okada and Roos followed brief talks between Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington earlier this month during a working dinner for the Nuclear Security Summit.
Hatoyama said during the talks he called for Obama's cooperation on deciding where to relocate the Futemma base but did not mention by name any prospective relocation site.
Under the 2006 bilateral agreement, forged as part of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, Futemma's heliport functions would be moved from the densely populated city of Ginowan in Okinawa to a coastal area of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago in the same prefecture.
Hatoyama is seeking to resolve by the end of May a dispute over where to relocate the Futemma facility and ideas including relocating the base to Tokunoshima, a Kagoshima Prefecture island about 200 kilometers northeast of the main island of Okinawa, have been floated.
The government led by the Democratic Party of Japan has met strong opposition to potential relocation plans from residents and local assembly members in Okinawa and Kagoshima.
A major protest rally in Okinawa to call for the removal of the base from the prefecture is scheduled for Sunday.
Members of the Kagoshima prefectural assembly, excluding assembly groups of the DPJ, have decided to hold a rally on May 8 in the city of Kagoshima to oppose the idea of relocating the base to Tokunoshima.
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