Friday 25th September, 12:58 PM JSTPITTSBURGH — Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday he has no intention of changing his basic stance on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station facility in Okinawa, suggesting he will still seek to move it out of the prefecture.
Hatoyama told reporters in Pittsburgh, where he is attending a financial summit, that he will not rush into discussing the matter with U.S. President Barack Obama and will focus bilateral talks for the time being on reconstruction support for Afghanistan.
In their first face-to-face talks in New York, Hatoyama assured Obama that the Japan-U.S. alliance remains the cornerstone of Tokyo’s security policy.
But he did not take up his government’s plan to reexamine a bilateral agreement stating the facility will be moved from the city of Ginowan to a less densely populated area in the city of Nago.
Hatoyama, who was sworn in on Sept 16 and is on his first diplomatic trip abroad as premier, also told reporters that a public funds injection may be necessary to help reconstruct struggling Japan Airlines Corp and that his administration will come up with a new reconstruction plan.
The new Japanese leader expressed eagerness to attend a general meeting Oct 2 of the International Olympic Committee at which the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games will be decided.
On the controversial moratorium on loan repayments for small companies, Hatoyama said he is looking to find a conclusion after his Democratic Party of Japan examines it with its two coalition partners—the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party.
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