Okinawa nixes base relocation plan as 'totally unacceptable'

Kyodo News via Yahoo! Asia News
October 31, 2005

(Kyodo) _ Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine on Monday rejected the plan of the Japanese and U.S. governments for relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.

The plan is "totally unacceptable" to Okinawa, Inamine told reporters after his meeting with Defense Facilities Administration Agency Director General Iwao Kitahara at the prefectural government office in Naha. Kitahara visited the governor to brief him on the interim report announced by Japan and the United States over the weekend in Washington on plans for the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the Futemma relocation, and to seek the understanding of the Okinawa leaders.

Without elaborating, Inamine said the latest plan creates more problems than the initial plan endorsed by the government in 2002, which calls for relocating the heliport functions of the Futemma base to an area off Henoko in Nago. "The governor offered some very critical remarks," Kitahara told reporters after his meeting with Inamine, held behind closed doors. "We will try to win Okinawa's understanding on the relocation plan by showing our good faith," he said.

Japan and the United States agreed last week on a specific relocation site for the heliport functions of the Futemma base in Ginowan, central Okinawa, to Nago, in the northern part of the island. The move involves using some land of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago and reclaiming some land from the sea. Okinawa has demanded that Futemma base's heliport functions be relocated outside the prefecture. Inamine clarified that position Monday, saying he wants Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to exert strong leadership in changing the latest agreement.

Speaking before reporters, Nago Mayor Tateo Kishimoto also branded the plan as "unacceptable," citing potential safety and noise problems. The interim report announced Saturday by the foreign and defense ministers of Japan and the United States includes specifics of the plan for relocating the Futemma heliport functions to Nago. Thousands of people gathered Sunday evening in a park in Naha, the prefectural capital, to protest against the plan.

Under an initial accord, struck in 1996 by the Japan-U.S. Special Action Committee on Okinawa, Washington would return the land of the Futemma base to Japan "within five to seven years" on the condition that its heliport functions be relocated within Okinawa Prefecture. That plan has been bogged down mainly due to strong opposition from local communities.

Kyodo News via Yahoo! Asia News

The Marines are Pulling Out of Okinawa

From American Forces Press Service, for About.com

Oct 30 2005
By Jim Garamone

WASHINGTON,– Some 7,000 Marines of the headquarters of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force will relocate from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam over the next six years as part of recommendations accepted by the United States and Japan on October 29.

The recommendations come out of the "2 plus 2" meeting hosted by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and including the Japanese defense minister, Yoshinori Ohno; U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; and Japanese foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura.

The 2 plus 2 charts the course of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance. The recommendations address the roles, missions and capabilities the United States provides in defense of Japan and also those of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. The recommendations recognize Japan's increasing influence in the world and call for the Japanese to shoulder a greater role in global security.

"Like all alliances, this relationship must and is, in fact, evolving to remain strong and relevant," Rumsfeld said in a Pentagon news conference today. "It's our joint responsibility to manage the alliance's evolution, and we are getting that job done."

Japan's global involvement includes troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and being a member of the Six-Party Talks to counter North Korea's nuclear program. It is also a player in the ballistic-missile-defense field and is a valued ally in the fight against global terrorism. All these demonstrate "Japan's place as an important contributor to global, as well as regional, security in these still-early years of the 21st century," Rumsfeld said.

Overall recommendations from the meeting call for much closer Japanese-U.S. military ties, including close and continuous policy and operational coordination. Senior officials speaking on background said this is a major step forward.

Another step comes when Japanese forces institute joint commands in March 2006. This will allow Japanese ground-, air- and sea-defense forces to work more closely together, officials said. The Japanese step comes at a perfect time to build closer ties between Japan and the United States. Today's recommendations call for strengthened bilateral contingency planning, locating U.S. and Japanese together, enhancing information sharing, and improving interoperability.

They also call for expanded Japanese training in the United States. Currently, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force travels to Alaska for training, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force exercises often with U.S. counterparts. The Ground Self-Defense Force does not currently exercise often with the United States, but senior officials see opportunities for that in Guam, Alaska, Hawaii and the continental United States.

The recommendations also call for more bilateral and multilateral exercises, especially to improve capabilities in air defense, counterterrorism, humanitarian-relief, peacekeeping and search-and-rescue operations, and in countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Force posture realignment is also a large part of the recommendations the leaders agreed upon in the talks. Just over 50,000 U.S. servicemembers are in Japan. The 7,000 Marines moving to Guam will bring that number down somewhat, but more U.S. forces will move within Japan than transfer elsewhere. The plan calls for U.S. and Japanese headquarters and capabilities to be located together. For example, Japan's Air Defense Command headquarters will move to Yokota Air Base, home of the U.S. 5th Air Force.

The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force will establish a headquarters at the U.S. headquarters at Camp Zama, strengthening the ties between the two commands. The Japanese will also base a new X-band radar, used for ballistic missile defense, somewhere in the country and will share all data from that radar with U.S. forces.

The recommendations urge speeding up relocation of the U.S. Marines' Futenma Air Base in Okinawa. Local Japanese have requested the return of the base, which hosts helicopters and C-130 cargo aircraft. The allies agreed to relocate the base to the shoreline area of Camp Schwab, elsewhere on the island of Okinawa. The Futenma decision has been hanging fire since 1996 and has been a flash point for Okinawans' displeasure with hosting U.S. forces on their island.

Also on Okinawa, the United States agreed to consolidate U.S. Marine forces on the island and return significant chunks of land on the island's densely populated southern portion to Japan.

The recommendations also call for shifting portions of the U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing 5 from Atsugi Air Facility to Iwakuni Air Station. Essentially, jets will operate from Iwakuni and helicopters from Atsugi.

The Japanese government will fund the greater portion of recommended relocations, officials said. Minister Ohno said through a translator that when he was the Japanese finance minister he was known as "Mr. Oh, no." But for this, he said, he wants to be known as "Mr. Oh, yes."

Both the foreign minister and defense minister accepted the idea that Japan must do more to promote security in the world. They both said the recommendations from the 2 plus 2 are a good start.

U.S. officials said the recommendations are the most far-reaching change in the alliance since the United States returned Okinawa to the Japanese in 1972.

The recommendations recognize that the relationship and the world have changed. "The specific roles that we would expect of Japan are those roles that Japan feels comfortable performing," Rumsfeld said. "Japan has the second-largest economy on the face of the Earth. The people of Japan benefit greatly from the international system. Clearly Japan has an interest in the success of the international system, and with an interest in that success ... it seems to me it's appropriate for Japan to find ways in the 21st century that they can contribute to making the system successful."

US to shift marines from Japan

Oct 30, 2005 10:41 AM

The United States will remove 7,000 Marines from Okinawa in a major overhaul of American troops and bases in Japan under a US global plan to make its military more flexible, top officials said.

The base realignment unveiled by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Japanese counterpart, Yoshinori Ohno, also boosts bilateral military co-operation in areas ranging from disaster relief to ballistic missile defines to counterproliferation.

Japan's embrace of a sweeping plan to build up joint defences with the United States signals Tokyo's acceptance of a growing military responsibility in the world and concern about the ambitions of North Korea and China, analysts said.

"This relationship must and is in fact evolving to remain strong and relevant," said Rumsfeld, whose Pentagon has long urged Japan to contribute more to global security.

Ohno said "we are in fact opening a new era" in the evolution of the bilateral alliance beyond its initial narrow role of protecting Japan to cover contingencies in areas surrounding the Pacific Ocean island nation.

"We're now talking about joint activities in various areas between Japan and the United States in order to improve the peace security around the world," he said.

Ohno, in a nod to sensitive public opinion at home and in neighbouring Asian countries invaded by Imperial Japan, stressed that Japanese activities would adhere to its war-renouncing constitution and "not involve use of force."

China was upset after a February round of US-Japan talks when the two allies listed Taiwan as a mutual security concern. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which has been split politically from the mainland since 1949.

Okinawa grievances

The removal of 7,000 of the 18,000 US Marines based on Okinawa is part of an effort to reduce grievances on the southern Japanese island over crime, accidents, noise and environmental problems with American bases and troops.

The Marines to be taken out of Okinawa, home to most of the 50,000 US troops in Japan, will be transferred to Guam and other areas within six years, US officials said.

The agreement, which was also endorsed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, does not mention potential adversaries by name.

But it said the two sides "underscored the need to pay attention to modernization of military capabilities in the region."

Japan and the United States, most recently with Rumsfeld's trip to Beijing last week, have raised concerns that China's rapid military build-up could destabilize the Pacific region.

The agreement includes plans to install powerful US X-band radar system to track ballistic missile attacks on Japan and to expand bilateral defines planning, intelligence co-operation and military training.

The allies agreed to set up military facilities at US and Japanese military bases in Japan, including an operations co-ordination centre and an air command and control centre at Yokota Air Base near Tokyo, the statement said.

On Thursday, the United States said it would for the first time base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan starting in 2008, after the only country ever hit with atomic bombs dropped its longstanding resistance to the move.

Source: Reuters

The Marines are Pulling Out of Okinawa

Oct 30 2005
By Jim Garamone

From American Forces Press Service, for About.com

WASHINGTON,– Some 7,000 Marines of the headquarters of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force will relocate from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam over the next six years as part of recommendations accepted by the United States and Japan on October 29.

The recommendations come out of the "2 plus 2" meeting hosted by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and including the Japanese defense minister, Yoshinori Ohno; U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; and Japanese foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura.

The 2 plus 2 charts the course of the U.S.-Japanese Alliance. The recommendations address the roles, missions and capabilities the United States provides in defense of Japan and also those of Japan's Self-Defense Forces. The recommendations recognize Japan's increasing influence in the world and call for the Japanese to shoulder a greater role in global security.

"Like all alliances, this relationship must and is, in fact, evolving to remain strong and relevant," Rumsfeld said in a Pentagon news conference today. "It's our joint responsibility to manage the alliance's evolution, and we are getting that job done."

Japan's global involvement includes troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and being a member of the Six-Party Talks to counter North Korea's nuclear program. It is also a player in the ballistic-missile-defense field and is a valued ally in the fight against global terrorism. All these demonstrate "Japan's place as an important contributor to global, as well as regional, security in these still-early years of the 21st century," Rumsfeld said.

Overall recommendations from the meeting call for much closer Japanese-U.S. military ties, including close and continuous policy and operational coordination. Senior officials speaking on background said this is a major step forward.

Another step comes when Japanese forces institute joint commands in March 2006. This will allow Japanese ground-, air- and sea-defense forces to work more closely together, officials said. The Japanese step comes at a perfect time to build closer ties between Japan and the United States. Today's recommendations call for strengthened bilateral contingency planning, locating U.S. and Japanese together, enhancing information sharing, and improving interoperability.

They also call for expanded Japanese training in the United States. Currently, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force travels to Alaska for training, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force exercises often with U.S. counterparts. The Ground Self-Defense Force does not currently exercise often with the United States, but senior officials see opportunities for that in Guam, Alaska, Hawaii and the continental United States.

The recommendations also call for more bilateral and multilateral exercises, especially to improve capabilities in air defense, counterterrorism, humanitarian-relief, peacekeeping and search-and-rescue operations, and in countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Force posture realignment is also a large part of the recommendations the leaders agreed upon in the talks. Just over 50,000 U.S. servicemembers are in Japan. The 7,000 Marines moving to Guam will bring that number down somewhat, but more U.S. forces will move within Japan than transfer elsewhere. The plan calls for U.S. and Japanese headquarters and capabilities to be located together. For example, Japan's Air Defense Command headquarters will move to Yokota Air Base, home of the U.S. 5th Air Force.

The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force will establish a headquarters at the U.S. headquarters at Camp Zama, strengthening the ties between the two commands. The Japanese will also base a new X-band radar, used for ballistic missile defense, somewhere in the country and will share all data from that radar with U.S. forces.

The recommendations urge speeding up relocation of the U.S. Marines' Futenma Air Base in Okinawa. Local Japanese have requested the return of the base, which hosts helicopters and C-130 cargo aircraft. The allies agreed to relocate the base to the shoreline area of Camp Schwab, elsewhere on the island of Okinawa. The Futenma decision has been hanging fire since 1996 and has been a flash point for Okinawans' displeasure with hosting U.S. forces on their island.

Also on Okinawa, the United States agreed to consolidate U.S. Marine forces on the island and return significant chunks of land on the island's densely populated southern portion to Japan.

The recommendations also call for shifting portions of the U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing 5 from Atsugi Air Facility to Iwakuni Air Station. Essentially, jets will operate from Iwakuni and helicopters from Atsugi.

The Japanese government will fund the greater portion of recommended relocations, officials said. Minister Ohno said through a translator that when he was the Japanese finance minister he was known as "Mr. Oh, no." But for this, he said, he wants to be known as "Mr. Oh, yes."

Both the foreign minister and defense minister accepted the idea that Japan must do more to promote security in the world. They both said the recommendations from the 2 plus 2 are a good start.

U.S. officials said the recommendations are the most far-reaching change in the alliance since the United States returned Okinawa to the Japanese in 1972.

The recommendations recognize that the relationship and the world have changed. "The specific roles that we would expect of Japan are those roles that Japan feels comfortable performing," Rumsfeld said. "Japan has the second-largest economy on the face of the Earth. The people of Japan benefit greatly from the international system. Clearly Japan has an interest in the success of the international system, and with an interest in that success ... it seems to me it's appropriate for Japan to find ways in the 21st century that they can contribute to making the system successful."

Japan, U.S. adopt realignment plans to boost security integration

Oct 29, 2005 - 06:38 AM

(Kyodo) _ Japan and the United States on Saturday adopted a realignment plan for U.S. forces in Japan aimed at promoting greater military integration between the allies, while also showing efforts to reduce the burden on Japanese localities hosting U.S. bases, including a reduction of 7,000 Marines based in Okinawa.

Among the major pillars of an interim report issued after a ministerial security meeting are plans to strengthen interoperability between the U.S. forces and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces through a new U.S. Army command in Camp Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, just southwest of Tokyo, joint use of bases and information-sharing, and the expansion of SDF training exercises in the United States.

The realignment blueprint lays out specific steps to ease the burden on base-hosting communities, including the reduction of Marines on Okinawa and the relocation of carrier-based aircraft from Atsugi base in Kanagawa to the U.S. Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station, Yamaguchi Prefecture in western Japan. It also includes a new relocation plan for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa, on which the two countries struck an agreement Wednesday, to replace a nine-year-old original plan that has stalled due to local opposition and environmental concerns.

Saturday's "two-plus-two" meeting involved Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The report included no specific timeframes for the realignment plans, but said the ministers agreed to compile a final agreement by next March that will set the details and stipulate target dates.

But an uphill battle remains for the Japanese government to convince Okinawa and residents of other localities to accept the realignment plans, as local leaders and residents have already voiced strong opposition and criticism of the expected moves, especially regarding Futemma. The ministers agreed that the United States will upgrade the U.S. Army's headquarters in Japan at Camp Zama into a new command organization and that Japan will aim to locate the headquarters of its Ground Self-Defense Force's rapid-reaction force at the same U.S. camp to enhance joint command capabilities.

While the report did not name the origin of the new command, it is believed that it would result from the integration of the U.S. Army 1st Corps in Washington State with Camp Zama. A shift of the 1st Corps command to Japan, however, raises concerns that the move may go beyond what is permitted under the Japan-U.S. security alliance, as the 1st Corps' missions are believed to cover Asia and the Middle East while the alliance is limited to cooperation in the Far East.

Meanwhile, the Air Self-Defense Force will move its Air Defense Command from Fuchu to the U.S. Yokota Air Base, both in Tokyo, to be stationed side by side with the U.S. Air Forces Japan Command Center to enhance cooperation in air and missile defense as well as sharing information. The ministers also agreed that Washington will reduce the number of Marines in Okinawa by 7,000, almost halving the current number of about 15,000 in Japan by moving the headquarters of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Forces from Uruma, Okinawa, to Guam. Okinawa currently hosts three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan.

In order to realize the relocation of the Marines to Guam to fulfill the strong wishes of Okinawa residents for a reduction of U.S. troops, the Japanese government will consider appropriate measures including bearing the financial costs, the report said. The two countries will also discuss integrating operations of the remaining U.S. Marines in Okinawa so that it will be possible for Washington to return a significant area of land to Japan from its current facilities in densely populated areas south of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.

The new Futemma plan entails building an L-shaped airfield using part of the coastal land of U.S. Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa, and over waters in the Oura Bay northeast of the camp to relocate the heliport functions of the Futemma base, which currently sits in the center of a residential area in Ginowan, also in Okinawa.

After intense negotiations through Wednesday, the two countries agreed to construct a runway and overrun area totaling 1,800 meters in length to replace the original plan for a 2,500-meter civilian-military offshore facility over reefs in waters southeast of the camp. The two countries also agreed to consider deploying an X-band radar system -- a new U.S. early warning system for tracking and identifying ballistic missiles -- in Japan.

The two-plus-two meeting, known officially as the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee, came just two weeks ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's scheduled visit to Japan in mid-November to meet Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The previous ministerial security meeting was held in Washington in February when Japan and the United States adopted a new set of common strategic objectives and agreed to accelerate realignment consultations.

U.S.-Japan Alliance: Transformation and Realignment for the Future

Security Consultative Committee Document
U.S.-Japan Alliance:　
Transformation and Realignment for the Future (October 29, 2005)

I. Overview

The U.S.-Japan Alliance, with the U.S.-Japan security arrangements at its core, is the indispensable foundation of Japan's security and of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. A close, cooperative relationship based on the alliance also plays an important role in effectively dealing with global challenges, and must evolve to reflect the changing security environment. Therefore, following the December 2002 meeting of the Security Consultative Committee (SCC), the U.S. and Japan intensified consultations on respective U.S. and Japanese security and defense policies in order to examine the direction of the U.S.-Japan alliance, and to develop options to adapt the alliance to the changing regional and global security environment.

At the February 19, 2005 meeting of the SCC, the Ministers reached an understanding on common strategic objectives, and underscored the need to continue examinations of the roles, missions, and capabilities of Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and the U.S. Armed Forces in pursuing those objectives. They also decided to intensify their consultations on realignment of U.S. force structure in Japan and directed their staffs to report expeditiously on the results.

Today, the SCC members reaffirmed their shared view of the security environment, in which new and emerging threats have surfaced as common challenges that can affect the security of nations worldwide, including the U.S. and Japan. They also reemphasized the persistent challenges in the Asia-Pacific region that create unpredictability and uncertainty and underscored the need to pay attention to modernization of military capabilities in the region. In this context, both sides reiterated their commitment to work closely together to pursue the regional and global common strategic objectives identified in their February 19, 2005 Joint Statement.

The SCC members approved findings and recommendations on roles, missions, and capabilities. They also approved recommendations for realignment, as reflected in this report. These measures are designed to enhance the alliance's capability to meet new threats and diverse contingencies and, as a whole, will reduce burdens on local communities, thereby strengthening security and ensuring the alliance remains the anchor of regional stability.


I. Overview

II. Roles, Missions, and Capabilities

1. Primary Areas
2. Basic Concepts of Roles, Missions, and Capabilities
3. Examples of Operations in Bilateral Security and Defense Cooperation to be Improved
4. Essential Steps to Strengthen Posture for Bilateral Security and Defense Cooperation

III. Force Posture Realignment

1. Guiding Precepts
2. Recommendations for Realignment

Japan, US closer in step

Japan
Oct 29, 2005
By Hisane Masaki

TOKYO - Japan and the United States on Saturday will sign an historic mutual-security agreement that, among other provisions, will allow for the first time an American nuclear-powered navy vessel to be based in a Japanese port.

The deal, which will be signed in Washington during a meeting of the two countries' defense and foreign ministers, will also include a strategy for overall realignment of US forces in Japan.

Earlier in the week, Tokyo and Washington struck a deal on the long-running dispute over the relocation of a key American air station in the southern Japanese island state of Okinawa, removing the biggest obstacle to the realignment agreement.

Both issues will touch off protest inside Japan, but the presence of a nuclear-powered navy vessel in the country is particularly sensitive, even though the ship will not carry nuclear weapons. Japan is the only nation ever to be attacked with atomic weapons - twice by the US in bombings that ended World War II. While experts believe American nuclear vessels have moved through Japanese waters, none has used a port in the country as a base.

"One of the nine Nimitz-class aircraft carriers will replace the USS Kitty Hawk as the forward-deployed carrier in the Western Pacific, and will arrive in Yokosuka, Japan in 2008," the US Navy said in a statement.

Japan and the US are considering Yokosuka Naval Base as a home for the nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Japan has no aircraft carrier of its own, while the US has 12. Kitty Hawk is the only such warship that has a home port outside of the US. Only the Kitty Hawk and the John F Kennedy are conventional vessels, the others nuclear powered. Yokosuka, headquarters of the US 7th Fleet, is Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's native city and constituency.

Other expected and possible elements of the realignment deal to be signed Saturday include:

• The headquarters of the US Marine Corps' 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and some other functions will be moved from Camp Courtney in Uruma, Okinawa prefecture, to Guam. The number of marines will be cut by several thousand as part of measures to reduce the burden of US forces in the prefecture. Offices and houses for the command and more than 4,000 marines and support staff are stationed at Camp Courtney. Japan and the US are discussing reducing the overall number of marines stationed in Okinawa from a current strength of about 18,000 by between 3,000 and 5,000.

• Japan and the US are considering moving some exercises conducted by F-15 fighters based at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa prefecture to Air Self-Defense Force bases outside of the prefecture, including those on the main southern Japanese island of Kyushu. By doing so, the number of takeoffs and landings of F-15 practices will decline and noise pollution around the base will be reduced.

• The two countries plan to move a smaller version of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters in Washington state, which is in charge of the Pacific and Indian Ocean, to Camp Zama in Kanawaga prefecture, adjacent to Tokyo. It will be in charge of contingencies on the Korean peninsula. Japan plans to set up a "central rapid response corps" of the Ground Self-Defense Force in fiscal 2006 to better cope with the threats of terrorism and for overseas missions. The two countries are considering locating the new Japanese corps in the compound of Camp Zama.

• Japan and the US plan to establish a joint air-defense command center at the US Air Force's Yokota base in western Tokyo by fiscal 2009. Creation of the command center is aimed at strengthening Japan's ability to detect and deal with enemy missile launches. The 5th Air Force headquarters at Yokota Air Base are to be integrated with the 13th Air Force headquarters in Guam. Yokota will then serve as the air force's command center for both East Asia and the West Pacific. Japan will introduce a US missile-defense, or MD, system in 2007. The two countries have also agreed on the development and deployment of a more advanced MD system, starting in fiscal 2006, to counter the threats of missile attacks from North Korea, which has deployed an estimated 200 Rodong missiles capable of striking almost all of Japanese territory.

• Tokyo and Washington are considering moving the US Navy's carrier-based aircraft from the Atsugi Naval Air Station in Kanagawa prefecture to the US Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi prefecture, western Japan. This transfer is part of measures to be taken in exchange for the transfer of the headquarters of US Army's 1st Corp from the state of Washington to Camp Zama in the prefecture. Japan and the US are discussing a plan to relocate some Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) planes at the Iwakuni Air Station to the Atsugi Naval Air Station. If the plan is realized, the Atsugi base, currently used jointly by Japanese and US forces, will be used mainly by the MSDF. About 70 planes, including US Navy F/A-18 fighters, aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, will be relocated from the Atsugi base to the Iwakuni facility. Those planes will move to the Iwakuni base when a new runway being constructed in waters off the Iwakuni base is completed in fiscal 2008. Relocation of MSDF planes will be done at the same time. Tokyo and Washington also are studying a plan to construct a giant floating runway about four kilometers offshore from the Iwakuni Air Station. Construction of the megafloat is considered a means of appeasing local residents on the relocation by significantly reducing noise pollution caused by night-landing practices of the carrier-borne aircraft.

Agreement on Futenma

Apart from these issues, a key element of Saturday's meeting will be Futenma Air Station. Yoshinori Ono, chief of Japan's Defense Agency, told reporters Wednesday that the US has agreed on Japan's proposal for the relocation of the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan City, Okinawa prefecture, to Nago City, also in Okinawa prefecture. Japan's proposal features the use of part of existing land at the US Marine Corps' Camp Schwab in Nago.

Under the deal reached Wednesday, a substitute airport for Futenma will be built in the coastal area of Camp Swab. Washington complied with the demand that part of the runway that will stick out to sea be built in Oura Bay northeast of the camp. In return for the US compromise, Tokyo agreed to extend the runway to 1,800 meters from the planned 1,500 meters.

Other changes in Okinawa include port facilities at Naha Naval Port in Naha and the Makimoto Service Area in Urasoe, both in Okinawa prefecture, being returned to Japan. The functions of the two facilities will be integrated with those at Camp Courtney in Uruma in the prefecture. Naha port is in the west of the Okinawa prefecture capital and is used for unloading and storing military supplies, while the Makimoto supply base is used for storing and controlling military goods. Air tankers deployed at Futenma Air Station will be moved to the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kanoya base in Kanoya City, Kagoshima prefecture.

The Okinawa realignment is part of the Pentagon's global "transformation" of its military with a view to streamlining its overseas bases and creating a leaner, more flexible and mobile military. But the repositioning in Japan is also meant to ease tensions caused by the US military presence. The US bases some 47,000 troops in Japan, and residents in Okinawa prefecture - where many of the troops are based - have long complained of crime, crowding and noise linked to the military. Okinawa is about 1,600 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. Japan and the US had agreed to move the air station but had clashed over the new location.

The agreement this week paved the way for Saturday's foreign and defense ministers's Security Consultative Committee or "two-plus-two" meeting.

Despite Wednesday's agreement on Okinawa, there is no guarantee that the relocation of Futenma Air Station will go ahead smoothly. It is still possible that the relocation could run aground again due to opposition from local residents and environmental activists, as it has done in the past several years.

The Japanese government is expected to pull out all the stops to provide understanding of the agreement for locals.

A survey conducted jointly by the Okinawa Times and Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting Corp in August showed that 83% of eligible voters in Okinawa were opposed to the original plan to relocate Futenma Air Station to the waters off the Henoko district of Nago City. Of those polled, 71% said they want the American bases in the prefecture to be reduced or consolidated, while 24% said the local bases should be withdrawn immediately and completely. Only 4% of those polled supported the status quo of the bases.

The survey also showed that 80% do not approve of the Koizumi government's efforts to reduce the burden of the bases on Okinawa, while only 14% said they do. Asked about what is the best way to resolve the Futenma relocation issue, 72% answered that the air base should be moved to Hawaii, Guam or somewhere else in the US, and only 4% said they want the base to be moved to the waters off the Henoko district of Nago City.

On October 21, the 10th anniversary of a massive rally by 85,000 Okinawans held in protest against the US military presence following the rape of three elementary school girls by US servicemen in 1995, some 300 people gathered in front of the gate to Futenma Air Station and held up fists in a show of opposition to the continued existence of the base.

Expect protest to be as strong after Saturday's deal is done.

Hisane Masaki is a Tokyo-based journalist, commentator and scholar on international politics and economy. Masaki's e-mail address is yiu45535@nifty.com

U.S. to reduce Marines in Okinawa by 7,000: Japan's defense chief

Oct 29, 2005
(Kyodo) _ The United States will reduce the number of U.S. Marines in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture by 7,000, almost halving the 15,000 to 18,000 Marines in Japan, as part of a bilateral realignment agreement to reduce the burden on base-hosting communities, Japanese Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Friday in Washington.

The personnel to be relocated away from Okinawa, which currently hosts 75 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan, will mostly be from command posts and not operational troops in order to maintain deterrence, Ono and his agency officials told reporters. The Marines will be relocated outside of Japan, mostly to Guam, the officials said.

Ono revealed to reporters that U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless told him in a June meeting in Singapore that the United States would reduce the number of Marines by "no fewer than 25 percent," which would be about 4,500 of the total of 18,000. But Ono responded by saying that was not enough.

Aiming for a "capability-based alliance transformation," the two sides eventually came to agreement with the 7,000 figure after several rounds of negotiations, Ono said. The figure will be included in an interim report on specific plans for the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan to be adopted Saturday at a bilateral ministerial security meeting.

Ono made the remarks in Washington ahead of the "two-plus-two" top security talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Washington is likely to move the headquarters of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Forces from Uruma, Okinawa, to Guam for the reduction.

U.S. accepts Japanese plan to scrap airport at Henoko

By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, October 28, 2005

Replacement for Futenma to be built at Camp Schwab

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The United States has accepted Japan’s proposal to build a facility on Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

The agreement came after three days of negotiations in Tokyo and is to be made formal over the weekend at the “two-plus-two” ministerial-level security meeting in Washington, U.S. and Japanese officials said.

Photo: Okinawans line Highway 330 near Camp Schwab on Jan. 18, part of an ongoing protest by anti-base activists and environmentalists against an air station proposed at the island’s Henoko port. U.S. and Japanese officials announced Wednesday that the facility would not be built at Henoko.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday, Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless said Japan’s government “has emphasized to the U.S. that the plan we have accepted … provides a comprehensive, capable and executable solution” for replacing Futenma “in an expeditious and complete manner.”

“Our intention is to formally accept this specific proposal later this week by including it as one of several realignment actions to be jointly recommended in our bilateral report on the progress of Alliance Transformation and Realignment.”

Lawless did not go into details about the plan. But in a statement the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo released later, he was quoted as saying that it “represents the best solution available … this plan can and will be fully executable in a comprehensive and timely manner, thereby allowing us to return Futenma Air Station to the people of Okinawa and Japan.”

In 1996, the United States and Japan agreed to move MCAS Futenma from Okinawa’s urban center to a more remote location on the island. After years of negotiations, a site on reclaimed land and a reef some two miles off Okinawa’s northeast shore was selected for a $2.87 billion airport with a 1.5-mile runway, connected to the Marine base by a causeway. But environmental and anti-base opponents have delayed the project. Japan has offered to scrap it in return for its plan to build an airport on Camp Schwab on the northern part of the island, extending onto reclaimed land in Oura Wan Bay. As a compromise, the 1,500-meter runway suggested by the Japanese plan was extended to 1,800 meters (about 1.1 miles), according to Yoshinori Ohno, director general of Japan’s Self-Defense Agency.

U.S. officials had favored a reduced runway near the original replacement site, stressing that the facility would be further from residential areas.

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine is expected to oppose the new plan. He supported the original Futenma replacement facility on the condition civilian aircraft also could use it. Prefectural officials declined to comment on Wednesday’s announcement.

Ohno told reporters that U.S. and Japanese governments reached agreement “on all the issues on the realignment including relocation of Futenma air station operations.”

“A runway will be built on Camp Schwab, using about 20 percent of the area where barracks are presently located, with a slight extension to the south in Oura Wan Bay,” he said.

“Japan will shoulder the cost as much as possible,” Ohno said, adding that he would send the head of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency to Okinawa to discuss the agreement with local officials before the bilateral talks in Washington.

He did not elaborate on when the construction might start or how long it might take.

He also did not go into any details on the realignment agreement.

The Futenma relocation issue was seen as a stumbling block to other realignment considerations, including proposals to close the Naha Military Port and Camp Kinser, moving their functions to Marine bases in northern Okinawa; reduce the size of Camp Foster; and move the command element of the III Marine Expeditionary Force to Guam, shifting some 3,000 to 5,000 Marines to that U.S. territory.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in Tokyo that the discussions had an atmosphere of urgency, “that not reaching an agreement on the security issue, a central part of the U.S.-Japan relationship, would seriously damage relations.”

Okinawa is host to slightly more than half of the U.S. troops in Japan, with U.S. bases covering one-fifth of the island. Of land in Japan used solely by the U.S. military, 75 percent is on Okinawa.

Japan, U.S. agree on new Futenma site

Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005
By KANAKO TAKAHARA
Staff writer

Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to Camp Schwab, possibly resolving a dispute that has lasted nine years.

The plan, recently proposed by Japan, will entail building a 1,800-meter runway through an area where barracks now stand and filling in some land in Oura Bay.

With the crucial agreement in hand, the two allies will proceed with their so-called two-plus-two security talks of foreign affairs and defense ministers on Saturday in Washington as planned.

Top government officials breathed a sigh of relief after clinching the agreement. If the talks had failed, it could have seriously undermined the Japan-U.S. alliance ahead of President George W. Bush's visit to Japan next month.

"It was a long road, but the two sides readily reached an agreement," Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told reporters after meeting with Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and Pacific affairs. Lawless was Washington's chief negotiator in the latest round of talks.

Ono also said the two sides agreed to reduce the number of marines in Okinawa by "a couple of thousand." There are presently some 14,000 marines in Japan, most of them stationed on Okinawa.

Although the negotiators may be smiling in Tokyo, the Japanese government still faces the daunting task of persuading the government and people of Okinawa to accept it. Local officials there have been demanding the base be relocated outside the prefecture or to a joint civilian-military airport to be built in waters off Nago.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said later Wednesday the government would do its utmost to gain Okinawa's understanding about the new plan, but he added the relocation will not be an easy task.

The government "was unable to implement the (initial) relocation (plan) because of a lot of opposition," Koizumi said. "We need to carry out (the new plan) as soon as possible."

The defense chief called for cooperation from Okinawans, saying Japan had done its best to protect the environment.

In a news conference in the afternoon at the U.S. Embassy, Lawless said the U.S. side agreed to the Japanese proposal because it was given assurances Tokyo's plan would provide a "comprehensive, capable and executable solution" to relocate the air base's heliport functions.

Lawless said the agreement is expected to be officially approved at Saturday's ministerial meeting in Washington along with an interim report on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

The national government will start explaining the plan to Okinawa "as soon as possible" and before the two-plus-two talks are held, Ono said.

But it is likely to be an uphill battle. In fact, after hearing that a deal had been struck, a senior Okinawa official in Naha said, "There is no way we can accept it."

At issue was how to find an alternative to the initial relocation plan, which called for transferring Futenma's heliport functions to waters off Nago by building a 2,500-meter runway along the reef off Camp Schwab, near the city's Henoko district.

The government was in the process of gauging the environmental impact of the proposal, but its work was blocked by civic groups opposed to the move, and prospects for resuming the work faded.

Washington had been pushing for a plan to build a military airport on reclaimed land in the shallows off Camp Schwab in an effort to reduce noise pollution and for operational reasons.

During the talks, the U.S. put forward a compromise proposal that entailed building the runway closer to land but still mostly offshore.

Tokyo insisted on building the airport on the coast using the camp's barracks area and a landfill, which would cause less damage to the waters inhabited by dugong.

Japanese officials -- especially the Defense Agency, which is in charge of executing the plan -- feared that Washington's offshore plan would still stall due to opposition from civic groups.

In 1996, the United States agreed that it should return the land occupied by Futenma air base to Japan "within five to seven years" on condition that its heliport operations were relocated within Okinawa.

Information from Kyodo added

Zama move opposed

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa told U.S. officials Tuesday he is opposed to relocating the U.S. Army's 1st Corps headquarters in the state of Washington to Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Matsuzawa also urged State and Defense department officials to respect local residents' views on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

"We are basically opposed to strengthening the functions" of Camp Zama, Matsuzawa said at a news conference in Washington.

At the meeting, he also said the prefectural government will inform the central government of its views over the realignment, urging the U.S. side to take them into account.

Japan and the United States are seeking to adopt an interim report at a meeting of top security officials this weekend in Washington.

The U.S. officials responded that the United States is ready to discuss issues raised by the local government if the central government raises them, Matsuzawa said.

Matsuzawa further urged the U.S. officials to make efforts to resolve the noise problems at the U.S. Navy's Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture, which are caused by carrier-based aircraft, and asked them not to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as a replacement for the Kitty Hawk, which is powered by conventional means.

In court, Japan urged to admit it’s dropped airport plan

By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, October 27, 2005

Henoko litigants say Tokyo, U.S. can’t agree on how to replace Futenma

NAHA, Okinawa — Smelling victory in their attempt to halt construction of a new Marine air station in northeast Okinawa, plaintiffs’ lawyers in a suit filed against the Japanese government Tuesday demanded Tokyo admit defeat.

During a hearing in Naha District Court, attorney Nozomi Kanetaka said the national government should admit it has abandoned plans to build a huge new airport in the waters off Nago’s Henoko district to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

“U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless said that the current plan would be impossible to achieve,” Kanetaka said. “It is obvious that both governments have no intention to pursue the present plan.”

The plan is to build a 1.5-mile runway on 455 acres of reclaimed land and a reef about two miles offshore from Henoko, connected by causeway to Camp Schwab. It would replace MCAS Futenma in urban Ginowan. Closing Futenma is part of a 1996 bilateral pact to reduce by 21 percent land the U.S. military uses on Okinawa.

In December, opponents — including 85 environmentalists, anti-military activists and Henoko residents — sued the Japanese government, which is to pay the project’s $2.87 billion tab.

The litigants are part of a group of protesters who have camped out at the Henoko port for 18 months, effectively stalling the project.

“Four platforms set up in waters by the Defense Facilities Administration Agency were removed on the pretext of preparing for a typhoon,” Kanetaka said. “But they have not been restored. The environment surrounding the present plan has been remarkably changed.”

Both governments have advocated scaling back the original plan to a .93-mile runway.

Japanese defense officials have said they favor building the facility on Camp Schwab, extending it into Oura Wan Bay’s shallow waters. U.S. officials favor building the stripped-down air station in the same area as the original replacement project.

Failure to agree on the site could delay an interim report on realignment that was to have been issued around Oct. 29, Japanese defense officials have said.

However, a smaller air station would be unable to handle civilian aircraft. Joint use of the facility was key to the prefectural government’s endorsement. Gov. Keiichi Inamine said he opposes any alternate plan — unless it means the Marines leaving Okinawa.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Henoko residents demanded to know why the environmental survey needs to be continued when no one is sure where the new base will be.

A Japanese government attorney replied that Tokyo officials will review whether or not to answer the question.

The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 24.

After Tuesday’s hearing, about a dozen plaintiffs and their backers gathered outside the courthouse. “We have been staging a sit-in protest for over 500 days,” said plaintiff Hiroshi Ashitomi. “With our tenacious effort, the situation has changed. We will continue to fight against any future plan that adds a new military facility to Okinawa.”

U.S. Agrees to Relocate Marines on Okinawa

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 27, 2005

Deal to Move Air Operations Resolves Long-Standing Dispute in Alliance With Japan

TOKYO, Oct 26 -- Japan and the United States reached a deal Wednesday to consolidate U.S. Marine airborne operations on Okinawa, resolving one of the thorniest issues of their strategic alliance and laying the groundwork for a broader realignment of more than 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on Japanese soil.

The plan calls for relocating operations from the Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma -- located near a densely populated civilian area of Okinawa -- to another U.S. base on the island, officials from both countries said.

"There was a sense of emergency that not reaching agreement on the issue, a central part of the U.S.-Japan relationship, would seriously damage relations," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

Despite the accord, U.S. dismay at the pace of the talks was evident. The head of the U.S. delegation, Richard Lawless, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian & Pacific affairs, suggested Tuesday that the difficulties over such issues as Futenma had delayed a broader reshaping of the U.S.-Japan alliance. The United States has come to view the alliance as a cornerstone of regional security as China assumes a more assertive stance and North Korea is presumed to have become a nuclear-armed threat.
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"We have to realize that we no longer have the luxury of interminable dialogue over parochial issues," said Lawless, speaking at a Tokyo conference sponsored by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute.

"If we are to bring the alliance to where it needs to be in the 21st century," Lawless said, "then we need to dramatically accelerate, across the board, to make up for the time lost to indecision, indifference and procrastination."

The initial decision to relocate the air station was made in 1996, but negotiations were drawn out because of protests to the U.S. presence, heightened by the 1995 rape of an Okinawa schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

The countries are also considering a greater role for U.S. troops stationed in Japan to respond to hot spots throughout the Asia-Pacific region as well as an increased integration of Japanese and American forces. U.S. officials have been pushing Japan to take on a greater role in the alliance by bolstering its defense capability.

The compromise announced Wednesday was reached after U.S. officials dropped their demands for a new offshore facility in Okinawa to replace the Futenma airstrip. It would have been constructed on some of the last pristine coral reefs in the area, which drew fire from environmentalists. Japan, on the other hand, insisted on consolidating the operations at the existing U.S. Marine base, Camp Schwab, also on Okinawa. While American negotiators had long argued that there was not enough space at Camp Schwab, the compromise calls for adding reclaimed land off the base's shoreline.

The Futenma issue was so divisive that many here said it played into the decision by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to skip Japan on his recent three-nation tour of Asia. Lawless headed the U.S. delegation instead, extending his stay to complete the agreement before a meeting in Washington this weekend between Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and their Japanese counterparts on broader strategic issues, including troop realignment. Officials were also brushing up against another, more important deadline, President Bush's visit to Japan in mid-November.

The agreement has been hailed as a breakthrough, but many details have yet to be worked out. Particularly complicated is the question of where more than 3,000 Marines at Futenma will ultimately be relocated.

Machimura said that "thousands" of U.S. troops would be moved away from Okinawa. The U.S. government, however, has not yet said where and when those troops might go and has not dismissed stationing them elsewhere in Japan. Japanese diplomats have suggested such a move would be politically untenable given local opposition, saying the U.S. forces should be moved to Guam or the United States.

Lawless Announces Agreement on Futenma

Statement by Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless
Tokyo, Japan

October 26, 2005

The U.S. side, taking into consideration the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance, and based on discussions yesterday and today with the GOJ - including a meeting with JDA Director General Ohno and more recent meetings with senior-level MOFA and JDA officials - has accepted the most recent JDA proposal and plan for the relocation of the USMC Air Station at Futenma.

In confirming to us the details of this plan, the GOJ has emphasized that the plan we have accepted, subject to USG interagency review, provides a comprehensive, capable and executable solution for the replacement of FRF in an expeditious and complete manner.

Our intention is to formally accept this specific proposal later this week by including it as one of several realignment actions to be jointly recommended in our bilateral report on the progress of Alliance Transformation and Realignment.

It is our intention that this report will be reviewed and approved at the Ministerial level in a 2+2 Meeting to be held this Saturday in Washington, D.C.

Again, the GOJ, led by the JDA as the executing agency, has assured the USG that this evolved plan represents the best solution available and assured us that this plan can and will be fully executable in a comprehensive and timely manner, thereby allowing us to return Futenma Air Station to the people of Okinawa and Japan. We look forward to working with GOJ, specifically the JDA, to implement this important decision.

http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20051026-75.html

Japanese politician says residents fed up with U.S. bases in Japan

Mainichi Daily News

WASHINGTON -- The governor of a Japanese state with several large U.S. military bases is urging high-level officials who are negotiating American troop relocations in Japan to remember the frustration of local residents.

Shigefumi Matsuzawa, the governor of Kanagawa Prefecture, outside Tokyo, said people who live near the three large bases in his crowded state complain about noise and pollution and are in constant fear of accidents and falling aircraft parts from facilities they derive little economic advantage from. "They cannot tolerate the burden they've been shouldering," said Matsuzawa, who has no direct role in current talks between U.S. and Japanese officials on the realignment of the 50,000 American troops stationed in Japan.

The governor, speaking at a Washington think tank, said U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines at the bases _ Atsugi, Camp Zama and Yokosuka _ should be shifted from Kanagawa, which has a population of 8.7 million, to other prefectures and overseas.

He said that while he appreciated that U.S. forces were necessary for Asia's security, he hoped they eventually would be replaced with Japanese self-defense soldiers. "We should head in the direction so that we could defend our own country by ourselves, and I see the current talks as a first step," he said through a translator.

Matsuzawa said his role will be to pass along his constituents' misgivings to Japanese negotiators at the talks, which center on a disagreement over where to relocate a Marine air facility that has spurred protests on the southern island of Okinawa.

Washington and Tokyo agreed almost 10 years ago to move the Marine Corps Air Station, Futenma, from the middle of a crowded city on Okinawa to a less congested location. While the two sides have since clashed, a Japanese official said Tuesday that negotiators were close to resolving the dispute.

Mainichi Daily News

Japan, U.S. agree to relocate Futenma base to coastal area of Camp Swab

Mainichi Daily News
October 26, 2005

Japan and the United States agreed on Wednesday to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture to the coastal area of Camp Swab in the prefecture city of Nago, government officials said. The agreement was reached in a telephone conversation on Wednesday between Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono and Richard Lawless, visiting U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense.

Under the compromise plan, a substitute airport for Futenma base will be built in the coastal area of Camp Swab. Washington complied with the demand that part of the runway that will stick out to sea be built in Oura Bay northeast of the camp. In return for the U.S. compromise, Tokyo agreed to extend the runway to 1,800 meters from the originally planned 1,500 meters.

Following the agreement, Japan and the United States will hold a two-plus-two meeting between foreign and defense ministers of the two countries in Washington on Saturday to work out an interim report on efforts to reduce and integrate U.S. bases in Okinawa.

Initially, the U.S. demanded that a substitute airport for Futenma base in Ginowan be built by reclaiming the sea south of Camp Swab. However, Ono rejected the demand and instead proposed that it be constructed in the costal area of the camp, part of which would stick out to the sea northeast of the camp to minimize its impact on coral and other marine life.

During a summit meeting in Kyoto on Nov. 16, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush are expected to demonstrate that they have agreed to reduce the burden on Okinawa in hosting the majority of U.S. bases in Japan, government sources said.

About 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa Prefecture in terms of land area even though the prefecture accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan's national land.

In 1996, Tokyo and Washington agreed to close Futenma base and return its land to its owners on condition that a substitute airport be built within Japan's southernmost prefecture.

Mainichi Daily News

Okinawa Air Base Deal Still Controversial

October 26th, 2005

New plan does not guarantee survival of endangered marine mammal

Okinawa, Japan/Washington, DC-- A coalition of hundreds of US and international conservation groups, representing over 12 million people, remain opposed to a new US air base in Okinawa. The coalition will deliver a letter on Thursday to President George Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi outlining the groups' concerns.

Last night, the United States and Japan announced a new plan that would involve building near, rather than directly on top of, the coral reef as originally planned. Under the new plan, the airbase would occupy part of a peninsula now hosting a US Marine base, as well as a portion of reclaimed marine habitat on either side of the peninsula.

Conservation groups say that any airbase at Henoko, Okinawa could potentially devastate a coral reef and sea grass field, which scientists say could have grave consequences for the imperiled Okinawa dugong (saltwater manatee). According to a study by leading dugong scientists and published by the United Nations Environment Programme, coastal construction, land reclamation and terrestrial runoff threaten the seagrass beds on which the dugong relies for survival. The UN also reports that dugong habitat could be damaged by other military activities associated with the construction and use of an airbase at Henoko. This damage includes pollution resulting from noise caused by ammunition drills and military practice, hazardous chemicals, soil erosion and the disposal of depleted uranium weapons.

"For Okinawans, the dugong has profound cultural and historical significance," said Takuma Higashionna from the Okinawa-based Save the Dugong Foundation. "The myth of the mermaid comes from sailors who saw the dugong. Okinawan tradition sees the dugong as a friendly messenger warning of sea disasters such as tsunamis."

This weekend, a security meeting is scheduled to discuss the new proposal and other issues. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will meet Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Defense Agency Director-General Yoshinori Ono in Washington, DC. Both sides hope to resolve this dispute before a planned trip by President Bush to Okinawa in mid-November. Okinawa, which accounts for less than one percent of Japan's landmass, already hosts 75 percent of the US military presence in Japan.

Increasing International Opposition

The plan for an air base at Henoko has faced continual demonstrations by Okinawans for more than two years and is opposed by environmental groups from around the world. The latest plan would require landfilling portions of two saltwater bays on which the endangered dugong rely for their survival. Many remain concerned that destruction of this key marine habitat could doom the last remaining Okinawan dugong to extinction and destroy essential habitat for other threatened sea life, such as sea turtles.

"The Okinawa dugong, which is an endangered species, should be protected domestically and internationally," said Sekine Takamichi an attorney with the Japan Environmental Lawyers Federation. "We call for the suspension of any relocation plans that involve Okinawa dugong habitat and Henoko Bay. We also request the governments to set up a dugong sanctuary and outline a dugong conservation plan based on the IUCN's (World Conservation Union) recommendation."

"Construction of the new airbase, even under the new plan, would cause severe ecological damage to one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth," said Peter Galvin of the Center for Biological Diversity. "For this reason, conservation groups around the world are asking President Bush and Prime Minister Koizumi to cancel the base construction plan in its entirety and protect the Okinawa dugong, a creature recognized as a national monument in Japan."

The region at issue is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the Pacific. Okinawa is second only to the Great Barrier Reef in terms of marine biodiversity, and the sea grass beds in northern Okinawa are the feeding ground of the last remaining dugong in Japanese waters. The sea grass and reef also provide important habitat for numerous rare wildlife species, including three species of sea turtle.

Local residents voted overwhelmingly against the airbase project in a 1997 referendum, but Japanese and US authorities have repeatedly ignored their voices.

A coalition of US and Japanese conservation groups went to court in September 2003 to stop the original project. The case is currently being heard in US Federal District Court in San Francisco. The lawsuit asks the US Department of Defense to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) by publicly assessing the impacts of the proposed project on the Okinawa dugong in consultation with Okinawan communities. The NHPA requires US agencies to assess the impacts of their activities on cultural icons of foreign nations. Because of their significance to Okinawan culture, dugongs are included on a Japanese government list of protected cultural properties.

"The Department of Defense has a legal duty to protect the cultural resources and national monuments of other nations," said Marcello Mollo of Earthjustice, who is representing the coalition in the United States. "Now that the most destructive airstrip plan over Henoko's reef is off the table, we see momentum toward an eventual cancellation of this entire air base. The courageous protesters in Okinawa have brought the world's attention to this issue. But the fight goes on."

Contact Info:
Peter Galvin, Center for Biological Diversity (USA) +1-520-907-1533
Marcello Mollo, Earthjustice (USA) +1-510-550-6700
Sekine Takamichi (Japan) +81-078-842-1955
Takuma Higashionna (Japan) +81-098-055-8587

U.S., Japan Reach Base Agreement

U.S. Accepts Japanese Proposal To Relocate Marine Corps Air Station On Okinawa

TOKYO, Oct. 26, 2005
(AP) The United States accepted a Japanese proposal for the relocation of a U.S. air station on Okinawa on Wednesday, resolving a dispute that had blocked progress on military realignment talks and caused friction between the two allies.

The plan, which scuttles a U.S.-favored proposal to construct a heliport on a coral reef, will move the functions of Marine Corps Air Station, Futenma from a congested city to inside another American base on the island, Japan's foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura also said that upcoming broader talks on the realignment of the U.S. military in Japan would lead to the reduction of thousands of the 14,600 American Marines on Okinawa. The U.S. Embassy would not confirm that.

The agreement to relocate the Futenma base was welcomed by both sides.

"The plan we have accepted today ... provides a comprehensive, capable and executable solution for the replacement of Futenma in an expeditious and complete manner," U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless said at the American Embassy.

Japanese officials said the deal resolved what had been turning into a tense standoff over the relocation of the base. The plan to build a new heliport on reclaimed land had faced stiff opposition from environmentalists.

"There was a sense of emergency that not reaching agreement on the security issue, a central part of the U.S.-Japan relationship, would seriously damage relations," Machimura told reporters.

Wednesday's deal lifted the main stumbling block to an agreement on the realignment of the 50,000 U.S. troops based in Japan. An interim agreement on realignment is to be released in Washington during U.S.-Japan talks on Saturday.

Washington and Tokyo agreed nearly 10 years ago to move the Futenma air station to a less crowded location on Okinawa as part of an overall plan to reduce the burden of the U.S. military presence on the tiny island.

Okinawa, 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, hosts most of the U.S. troops in Japan, and residents have long complained of crime, crowding and noise associated with the bases. Protests against the presence peaked in 1995 following the rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

Machimura said cutting the number of Marines on the island would also soothe local opposition to the military presence.

"I want to show the people in Okinawa what kind of burden reduction there will be. It's going to be a very large scale reduction," he said, adding that the reduction would be "in the thousands."

Machimura did not say whether the Marines would be moved elsewhere in Japan or relocated to another country or the United States. There are 14,460 U.S. Marines in Japan, the largest contingent based overseas, and nearly all are on Okinawa.

U.S. officials refused to comment on the Marines, saying that such issues would be worked out in the weekend talks in Washington.

On the Futenma dispute, research had already begun on a proposed replacement heliport to be build at Henoko off the coast of Okinawa. But environmentalists, residents and other opponents say the plan would wreck one of the area's last healthy coral reefs, and have mounted regular protests to block the research.

In the face of that opposition, Japan had come up with a proposal to combine the air station's functions with nearby Camp Schwab. Washington initially balked at that plan, in part because the U.S. believed it too would be fought by residents.

It was not clear why the U.S. changed position, and Lawless gave no details of the plan that Washington had accepted.

U.S. official in Tokyo to discuss Futenma

By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Air station’s relocation a sticking point in realignment talks

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Ongoing realignment talks between the United States and Japan remain snarled over where to move Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless is in Tokyo this week to discuss the remaining two options for a new air station — either a facility on Camp Schwab and extended into the shallow waters of Oura Wan Bay or a base built on reclaimed land and a reef on the other side of Camp Schwab in the waters off the fishing village of Henoko.

The Japanese side, according to reports, favors building on Camp Schwab, where some barracks now stand. U.S. officials favor the Henoko plan, a smaller airport than the one that met with stiff opposition from environmental and anti-base groups.

After recent talks in Washington, D.C., Japanese officials last Friday said a failure to reach an agreement on the relocation plan could stall the realignment talks. An interim report on realigning U.S. troops in Japan was to be issued around this Friday.

Japan Defense Agency Chief Yoshinori Ohno said, “Failing to reach an agreement is not an option.”

But the interim report could be delayed, he told reporters in Tokyo last Friday.

“Such a situation is possible,” Ohno said. “However … we have no choice but to continue to make an utmost effort to find common ground.”

Officials from both countries conducted site surveys of the proposed sites last week.

“A decision based on the surveys is yet to be made,” Ohno said.

Both plans face stiff opposition from Okinawa’s environmental and anti-base groups.

Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine, who approved of the original Henoko plan with its approximately 1.6-mile runaway, instead of the approximately 0.93-mile facility being discussed, also opposes the options. The smaller airport wouldn’t be suitable for joint use by civilian aircraft, a requirement Inamine considers non-negotiable.

In a related matter, a Japan Self-Defense Force spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes on Monday that Japanese press reports announcing the United States and Japan have agreed to move Marine facilities from the Naha area in Southern Okinawa — including Camp Kinser — to northern Okinawa were premature.

“In the process of reviewing the number of troops stationed on Okinawa, with the possibility of closing some military facilities, both governments are discussing various ideas with the intention of coming to an early settlement,” the spokeswoman said. “Details of the discussions on each installation are not releasable at this point.”

She also declined to confirm reports that the two nations have agreed to relocate the training of some Japan Ground Self-Defense Force units to Camp Hansen.

“It is still premature to release any information on negotiations on individual installations,” she said.

ASIA-PACIFIC: US anger at pace of Tokyo defence talks

By David Pilling in Tokyo, Financial Times
Published: Oct 26, 2005

The US-Japan alliance, the bedrock of Washington's east Asian security policy, risks being damaged by "interminable dialogue over parochial issues", Richard Lawless, US defence deputy undersecretary for Asia and the Pacific, said in Tokyo yesterday.

Venting Washington's increasingly open frustration at the slow pace of negotiations aimed at shrinking and reconfiguring US troop deployment in Japan, Mr Lawless said: "We need to dramatically accelerate, across the board, to make up for time lost to indecision, indifference and procrastination."

Although he said he was "cautiously optimistic that we can get past some of the current distractions that obscure our larger goals", he said squabbles over base redeployment, particularly in the strategically important southern island of Okinawa, could do real harm to an alliance that was already anachronistic.

"We are trying to bring the substance of the alliance up to the level that it probably should have achieved some time ago," he said.

Mr Lawless' remarks, which departed from the usual platitudes about the supposed rude health of the US-Japanese alliance, come as the two sides struggle to complete talks on troop realignment before US President George W. Bush visits Japan in mid-November.

The US wants to cut its roughly 45,000 troops in Japan by about 5,000, but to increase its mobility and technical capacity to deal with changing security objectives in response to a rising China, friction in the Taiwan Strait and the Korean peninsula and the threat from terrorism.

While most senior Japanese officials have signed up to those goals in principle, talks have become bogged down over specific issues, such as the construction of a heliport in Okinawa.

Shigeru Ishiba, defence minister until last September, said in an interview with the Financial Times yesterday that Japan lacked the necessary leadership to overcome local issues in the interests of broader strategic goals.

"I am not saying prime minister [Junichiro] Koizumi has no interest in Okinawa, but he does not have a strong commitment to solving this problem," Mr Ishiba said, adding that the cabinet office, defence and foreign ministries were not working well together to solve pending issues.

Mr Ishiba did not think Mr Lawless' comments were a strategic ploy to accelerate negotiations. "I don't think he is pretending to be angry. I think he really is angry," he said. "When he came to see me a month or so ago, he asked: 'Why can't Japan sort this out and who is responsible for sorting this out?'"

Aaron Friedberg, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, said the US wanted Japan to play a more equal role in the alliance, which obliges the US to defend Japan in an attack but not the other way around.

They are aiming for "a more normal alliance as Japan becomes a more normal country", he said, referring to possible changes to Japan's constitution, which prevents it from participating in collective defence.

Mr Lawless said the two sides needed to move beyond base-related frictions "that have so long impeded the maturation of this partnership". If Japan did not show the political leadership needed - by persuading its people of the benefits of hosting US bases - "the US-Japan security relationship will not reach the point it needs to as an alliance."

Japan, US struggle with military base realignment

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 00:16 CDT
By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - When U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Okinawa two years ago, he got an unwelcome earful of complaints from the governor about the American military presence on the southern Japanese island.

This week, Rumsfeld is skipping Japan altogether on a tour of China and nearby countries, after Tokyo and Washington failed to settle a row over a U.S. base on Okinawa, reluctant host to about half the nearly 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.

Officials on both sides have played down the significance of the gap in Rumsfeld's itinerary. But they agree the feud over the Marines' Futenma air base is the main obstacle to a broad deal on realigning U.S. bases in Japan, part of Washington's plan to transform its military globally into a more flexible force.

Resolving the Futenma dilemma is vital, expert say, to ensuring Japanese public support for the alliance as both sides seek to enhance security ties and cooperation amid concerns about North Korea's nuclear program and Beijing's military build-up.

"To make integration really work, you've got to have broad public support," said Richard Samuels, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"It's not just about mechanics, it's about legitimacy."

A critical part of the Marines' forward deployment, Futenma is located in a densely populated part of the island and has come to symbolize friction over the U.S. military presence on Okinawa.

Many Japanese communities are reluctant to host U.S. bases due to concern about pollution, accidents and crime such as the 1995 rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl, which sparked huge anti-base protests on the island, where resentment runs especially deep.

Okinawan anger flared again after a U.S. helicopter crashed on the grounds of a university in August 2004. No one was hurt.

"Seventy or 80 percent of the Japanese people support the U.S.-Japan alliance, but when it comes to bases, everyone says 'Not in my back yard'," a Japanese government official said.

The two countries agreed in 1996 to close Futenma if an alternative site were found on Okinawa, but opposition from locals and environmentalists has kept the deal from being implemented.

ROLE IN A CRISIS

Both sides hope to reach an agreement on Futenma and wrap up a broader deal on base realignment that reduces the U.S. military "footprint" while also improving the ability of the two forces to cooperate before U.S. President George W. Bush meets Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Japan next month.

"We are talking about significant reductions in Okinawa. ... There are things the United States is prepared to do as part of a whole package," a U.S. official told Reuters recently.

"But we are not interested in going through all the pain and expense of a major transformation...that still leaves this festering sore," he said, referring to Futenma.

Some experts worry that the focus on Futenma is muddying the deeper matter of Japan's roles and missions in the alliance.

"People are getting worked up over Futenma when the real issue is, what will Japan do in a crisis?" said Brad Glosserman, executive director of Pacific Forum CSIS, a Hawaii-based think tank.

Japan has made big strides over the past decade toward closer military cooperation with Washington, most recently by sending troops on a non-combat mission in Iraq -- the first such deployment to a conflict zone since the end of World War Two.

The changes have stretched the limits of Japan's pacifist constitution, which remains an obstacle to Japan's becoming a more high-profile ally like Britain, with soldiers who could one day fight alongside U.S. troops in overseas conflicts.

The 1947 constitution bans maintaining a standing military but has been interpreted to allow a force for self-defense, and Japan's military is about the same size as Britain's.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is finalizing a draft constitution that will clarify that ambiguous status and allow force deployment overseas as part of international cooperation.

The party is also debating dropping the government's self-imposed ban on engaging in collective self-defense, or aiding allies when they are attacked.

"Japan can't be the 'Britain of Asia' until Japan decides that it can legally, openly, and honestly participate in collective self-defense with their ally," MIT's Samuels said.

With a majority of Japanese voters still opposed to altering the constitution's pacifist Article Nine, however, it remains unclear how much time will pass before such changes take place.

"The concept of 'Britain of Asia'...is a non-starter given the political circumstances," Glosserman said.

"Ten years from now? It's within the realm of possibility, but I don't know what the odds are."

Source: REUTERS