Nov 6 07:50 AM US/EasternNAHA, Japan, Nov. 6 (AP) - (Kyodo) — A Social Democratic Party member elected to the lower house from Okinawa Prefecture said Friday the SDP "needs to make a serious decision" if the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station is relocated within the prefecture, suggesting his party should leave the ruling coalition.
Kantoku Teruya made the comment during a meeting with Tokujitsu Miyagi, mayor of Kadena, which hosts the U.S. Kadena Air Base.
The meeting in Naha was open to reporters. Teruya's Okinawa No. 2 constituency covers the Futemma air station and Kadena base.
"It has been pointed out that political failure has imposed suffering on Okinawa residents by allocating enormous U.S. bases here," Teruya said at the meeting. "I will appeal on the national political stage for the Futemma air station not to be relocated within the prefecture."
Under the 2006 accord between Japan and the United States, the heliport functions of the Futemma Air Station, located in a downtown residential area of Ginowan, are set to be moved to a less densely populated area in Nago, northern Okinawa, by 2014.
To launch a coalition government, the Democratic Party of Japan, the SDP and the People's New Party agreed in September to "move in the direction of reexamining the realignment of the U.S. military forces in Japan and the role of U.S. military bases in Japan so as to reduce the burden on Okinawa residents."
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is seeking to move the Futemma airfield out of Okinawa or even out of Japan.
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