Thursday, May 27, 2010

Japan-U.S. pact to state Okinawa's Henoko as base relocation site

    May 27 01:29 AM US/Eastern

    (AP) - TOKYO, May 27 (Kyodo) — A joint statement to be released shortly by Japan and the United States will specify that a key U.S. Marine Corps base in Okinawa Prefecture will be relocated to a coastal area near the Henoko district in Nago in the same prefecture, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Thursday.

    It is "quite unlikely" for the two countries to avoid mentioning the area as the relocation site for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station, the top government spokesman said, despite strong opposition from one of the Japanese ruling coalition parties to a specific reference to the site in the statement.

    The junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, has brushed off the government's latest plan to keep the air base within the prefecture.

    It has also said including Henoko in the upcoming bilateral deal and leaving it out in Japan's standalone document, as suggested by Hirano in considering issuing a relocation policy paper Friday, is a "double standard."

    Hirano, speaking at a news conference, added to the confusion by saying that he believes Tokyo's own paper, now very likely to be released in the name of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is more important than the joint statement to be prepared by foreign and defense ministers of the two countries.

    Earlier in the day, the SDP held an executive meeting and decided that its leader, Mizuho Fukushima, who also has a ministerial portfolio, will not sign a Cabinet resolution as long as Hatoyama presupposes that the relocation site will be in the coastal area near the Marines' Camp Schwab, party members said.

    Some SDP lawmakers have insisted that the party bolt from the ruling coalition if Hatoyama does not change his stance.

    Government sources said Wednesday that Hatoyama is planning not to specify where the Marine Corps base will be moved when he sets a course for its relocation late this week, taking into account the SDP's stiff opposition.

    In an attempt to break the deadlock with the small pacifist party, Hirano suggested Thursday that the government may forgo a Cabinet resolution that requires signatures from all ministers, and prepare instead for Hatoyama to directly address the Japanese public on the government's latest policy on the relocation.