Dec 25 03:27 AM US/EasternTOKYO, Dec. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)— Defense Agency Director General Fumio Kyuma said Monday, at a meeting between representatives of the government and local authorities regarding the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa, that he will consider moving forward the relocation schedule currently planned for completion by 2014, national government officials said.
Kyuma's remarks are believed to have come in response to demands by new Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima that the government should bring the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station to a state of virtual closure in three years to eliminate the danger it poses to the densely populated area of Ginowan where it is located.
"It is important to complete it before 2014," Kyuma was quoted by the officials as saying in reference to the Japan-U.S. plan to build an airfield with two runways in a V-shaped formation on the coast and to landfill an area in Nago in and around the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab.
He also sought the understanding of the Okinawa prefectural government over the current relocation plan, finalized by the Japanese and U.S. governments in May, because Nakaima said in his campaign for the Okinawa gubernatorial election in November that he opposes the plan.
Nakaima said the current relocation plan was decided without considering the opinions of Okinawa Prefecture and he asked the central government for an "appropriate response," the officials said.
Kyuma told reporters after the talks, "I said I am sorry and it is regrettable if (Okinawa) views the situation that way and said we will discuss the matter fully from no on."
The Okinawa governor said in a press conference following the consultative meeting, "It is one or two steps forward that (the government has said) it will make efforts to tackle the issue, but it is not perfect yet."
Nakaima said he hopes the government will show a specific response that heeds the demands of the southwestern prefecture.
Monday's talks at the prime minister's official residence represent the second consultative meeting between the central and local governments on the Futemma relocation issue and the first to be held after both Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Gov. Nakaima took office.
The participants agreed to meet again in January, the officials said. The first consultations took place in late August.
Although Abe did not attend the August meeting -- when he was chief Cabinet secretary -- Yasuhisa Shiozaki, who succeeded him as the government's top spokesman, said he attended the meeting on Monday in line with Abe's decision to listen to local government representatives as part of the government's efforts to coordinate U.S. military realignment.
The Nago municipal government has accepted the new airfield plan, but Tokyo has yet to gain approval from the Okinawa prefectural government. Under current laws, landfills for airfield construction will require authorization from the Okinawa governor.
Nakaima, who took office earlier this month, is seen as showing more flexibility on the Futemma issue than his predecessor, Keiichi Inamine. The former governor was strongly opposed to the latest Japan- U.S. plan to build the two runways to replace Futemma's heliport functions and called for relocating the airfield outside of Okinawa.
The Futemma relocation is a main pillar of the overall plan for the realignment of the U.S. military presence in Japan, which also includes moving 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam and dispersing flight drills from congested bases to other facilities across the country.
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