Apr 2 08:29 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 2 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima conveyed to Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Friday his opposition to the transfer of a U.S. Marine base within the prefecture, saying such a plan would be "difficult" to realize amid growing calls from local residents to relocate the base outside of Okinawa.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama the same day instructed his ministers in the Cabinet to set up a working-level consultative framework with the United States and at the same time proceed with negotiations with the Okinawa prefectural government for Futemma's relocation.
"Okinawa people strongly wish it (the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station) to be transferred out of the prefecture and their movement has been gaining momentum," Nakaima told reporters after meeting with Kitazawa at a Tokyo hotel. "I told the minister there is a difference in the mood between Tokyo and Okinawa."
Nakaima also told Kitazawa it would be difficult to implement an idea currently being studied by the government that involves helipad construction and land reclamation within the prefecture.
In the evening, Hatoyama met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Okinawa affairs minister Seiji Maehara and Kitazawa, all of whom are concerned with the matter, at the prime minister's office.
Hatoyama instructed them to "play their own roles," Hirano told reporters after their meeting, adding that the participants also confirmed who among them will be responsible for consulting with the local government that would host the site to take over the Futemma facility.
However, Hirano did not disclose who that may be.
"I'm having (the ministers) move on the basis of my own plan right now, so I can't tell you the content (of the plan)," Hatoyama told reporters before the meeting. "I believe I can gain public acceptance based on a government idea by the end of May without fail."
The government is aiming to temporarily move a helicopter unit of the Futemma facility in Ginowan to a helipad to be built at the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago and eventually to an area that would be reclaimed off the Katsuren Peninsula in Okinawa or to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, according to diplomatic sources.
Nakaima, who pressed Hirano on Thursday to brief him on a government proposal on where to relocate the Futemma airstrip once the idea becomes concrete, said he got the impression in his talks with Kitazawa that the government has yet to finalize its relocation plan, the same impression he had after holding talks with Hirano.
Kitazawa told reporters that he understood the governor's wish to see progress on the Futemma issue as soon as possible and hear about a new direction or decision by the government on the matter immediately after it is set.
"We agreed to share more information and cooperate more closely with each other from now on. I promised the governor that the central government will not make any decision without Okinawa's consent," the defense chief said.
Hatoyama has pledged to settle the Futemma relocation issue, which has strained ties between Japan and the United States, by the end of May.
The government has been exploring an alternative to a 2006 Japan-U.S. accord under which the heliport functions of the Futemma base will be transferred by 2014 to a coastal area of Camp Schwab on land that would be reclaimed.
The prime minister said Wednesday he has his own plan for the relocation of the Futemma base and that local consent is a prerequisite for proceeding with any negotiations with Washington.
However, Kitazawa said Friday that he believes Hatoyama referred to "a basic line that integrates several options" concerning the transfer of Futemma, indicating that the premier's idea is not totally new.
Nakaima said a major rally is scheduled to be held in Okinawa on April 25. The rally to be organized by the Okinawa prefectural assembly aims to draw 100,000 people to call for the Futemma base to be transferred out of the prefecture.
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