Gov't to set up informal forum over Futemma relocation issue

Sep 30 12:32 PM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Oct. 1 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The government will set up an informal forum over the proposed relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station outside of Okinawa, a top Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano will convene the forum's first meeting at the prime minister's office Friday, the official said.

New Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has maintained his campaign pledge to seek to move the air station out of the southwestern Japanese prefecture.

The proposal goes against a Japan-U.S. accord in 2006 to move heliport functions of the Futemma air station in downtown Ginowan in Okinawa to Camp Schwab, also in Okinawa, by 2014.

Defense Minister Kitazawa has indicated the air station should be relocated within Okinawa in line with the Japan-U.S. accord.