Defense minister cautious about deploying GSDF on westernmost island

Sep 24 11:57 PM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Sept. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa indicated Friday he is cautious about deploying Ground Self-Defense Force troops on Japan's westernmost island of Yonaguni in Okinawa Prefecture, just 110 kilometers away from Taiwan's eastern coast.

Kitazawa, who will fly to Okinawa's main island later in the day to discuss a U.S. base relocation plan with local municipality heads, told a press conference before his departure that the new government will "try not to raise security concerns among neighboring countries."

In July, Kitazawa's predecessor, Yasukazu Hamada of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited Yonaguni, a small island in the East China Sea, and suggested he would consider the GSDF deployment there in a bid to show to Japan's neighbors its stance on defending outer islands.

"From the viewpoint of national defense, (sending troops to Yonaguni) is basically important. But I doubt whether the matter requires urgency," Kitazawa said.

Yonaguni is located roughly 150 km south of a set of Japanese- administered islets whose ownership is disputed by China, Japan and Taiwan. Japan considers the Senkaku Islands -- also called Diaoyutai in China and Tiaoyutai in Taiwan -- part of the Nansei Islands it controls.

The minister also said he will consider launching a new framework for consulting with representatives of Okinawa over the U.S. military realignment.

Kitazawa is scheduled to make a three-day visit to Okinawa to hear the views of Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima and other local municipality chiefs on the planned relocation of the U.S. Marines' Futemma Air Station within the southernmost prefecture.

On Saturday, he will inspect the Futemma facility in downtown Ginowan as well as the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, where heliport functions of the air station are scheduled to be transferred by 2014 under a Japan-U.S. pact sealed in 2006.

Both Ginowan and Nago are located on Okinawa's main island. Nago is a northern city in the prefecture.

The Democratic Party of Japan, which leads the new government, aims to move the Futemma air station outside Okinawa despite the 2006 bilateral accord, so as to lessen burdens on local residents.