April 26, 2010
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Okinawans staged a public assembly in Tokyo on Monday to urge the government to move the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station out of Japan's southernmost island prefecture.
About 600 people, including organizers of Sunday's protest rally in Okinawa as well as Okinawans who live in and around Tokyo, attended the assembly.
An organizer said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama must responsibly implement his election promise to move Futenma out of Japan or at least out of Okinawa, adding that no plan to relocate it within the prefecture is acceptable.Mayor Yoichi Iha of Ginowan City, which hosts the Futenma base, criticized the Japanese and US governments for doing nothing for 14 years to implement their bilateral agreement to return the Futenma site to the city. He said the US idea of asking for a new base in order to close down an existing one is outdated.
Criticizing the government for putting forward different relocation plans on different days, Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine called for unified efforts to block any attempt to build a new base in Okinawa.
2010/04/26 21:43(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)
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