May 26 11:40 PM US/Eastern
TOKYO, May 27 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will ask prefectural governors Thursday to try to share the burden of hosting U.S. forces in Japan with Okinawa Prefecture, where a large part of the military installations are located, government sources said.
Hatoyama plans to make the request at a meeting of the National Governors' Association in the afternoon as his government attempts to move some of the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa outside the island prefecture.
The government is trying to adopt at a Cabinet meeting Friday a policy of relocating the air station within Okinawa and keeping most of its functions in the prefecture.
Hatoyama will explain to the governors about a plan to have Futenma's helicopter unit join Marine training conducted outside the prefecture, the sources said.
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