Apr 25 06:55 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, April 25 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Opposition Liberal Democratic Party chief Sadakazu Tanigaki said again Sunday that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama should step down if he fails to resolve the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa by the end of May as promised.
"He has no other choice but to step down if he cannot achieve it by putting his position on the line," Tanigaki told reporters in the city of Toyama, when around 90,000 people gathered for a rally in Okinawa to seek the removal of the U.S. Marine base.
Hideki Takaoka, mayor of Tokunoshima, Kagoshima Prefecture, also commented on the Okinawa rally as Tokunoshima Island is considered a candidate for the relocation site of the Futemma facility.
In an interview Sunday, Takaoka said, "It is not good for Okinawa and Tokunoshima that the central government remains unclear about where to relocate the Futemma facility," adding that he wants the base issue resolved soon.
Takaoka and two other town mayors on the island sent a message to the Okinawa rally, in which they said, "Neither Okinawa nor Tokunoshima needs the Futemma base."
On Tokunoshima Island, about 15,000 people gathered last Sunday to protest the move to relocate the Futemma facility to the island.
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