Dec 22 08:27 AM US/EasternTOKYO, Dec. 22 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Japan has set next May as the deadline for reaching a conclusion on the thorny issue of where to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps base in Okinawa Prefecture, but the government should decide on it as quickly as possible, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Tuesday.
Kitazawa's remarks came soon after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called in Japan's ambassador to Washington for an extraordinary meeting on Monday to say that the United States wants Japan to swiftly implement the relocation in line with a bilateral agreement.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said he has no plans to reconsider the government's decision to put off reaching a conclusion until next year and to discuss the matter among the three ruling parties, describing Clinton's move as "within a predictable range."
Last week, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he will postpone a decision on the issue and seek an alternative relocation site for the Futemma base other than that agreed by the two countries, but he fell short of setting a deadline.
On the May 2010 deadline, Kitazawa said at a news conference Tuesday, "It's not that because we have set the date as May that we should resolve it then, we should (resolve) it as quickly as possible."
The defense chief noted that Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan and its two junior coalition partners share a basic understanding that this is the schedule for resolving the issue.
Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a news conference Tuesday evening it is important that Japan make a decision on the issue by the time of the next meeting between Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama, which could take place in June, and expressed support for the May deadline.
Prior to Hatoyama's announcement last week, Hirano himself proposed reaching a conclusion on the matter by next May during a meeting of the heads of the three parties and Cabinet ministers concerned with the issue, according to ruling coalition lawmakers.
But the Social Democratic Party, which advocates moving the base outside of the southernmost prefecture or the country, opposed at the time setting the May deadline, which would come after the Diet presumably approves the fiscal 2010 budget.
On Tuesday, however, Hirano said he understands that there is a basic consensus among the three parties regarding the May deadline, including the SDP.
Okada also said he would like to propose discussing measures with the United States to reduce the burden on Okinawa of hosting U.S. bases, such as by moving some training programs conducted at the Futemma facility outside of Okinawa, "separately" from the relocation issue.
The United States has been considering such measures based on the premise that the existing plan for the Futemma air station to be relocated within the prefecture is implemented.
On Monday's talks between Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki and Clinton, a senior Foreign Ministry official expressed concern that Washington is not showing understanding about Hatoyama's move, saying, "This is a warning to the Hatoyama government from the U.S. side."
Hatoyama said Friday in Copenhagen that Clinton had expressed her understanding of his decision to put off reaching a conclusion on the Futemma issue when the two sat next to each other and talked over an hour at a banquet hosted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe for dignitaries attending the U.N. climate conference.
The Japanese government now plans to set up working-level talks among the three coalition parties to begin considering an alternative site.
But with the Fujisaki-Clinton meeting again highlighting a rift between the two countries, a source close to the ministry expressed concern that if mishandled, the issue could have a negative impact on bilateral ties.
Meanwhile, an official close to the prime minister questioned the role that the ministry may have played in realizing the meeting, saying, "It could be a case in which the Foreign Ministry has tried to put 'gaiatsu' external pressure with the help of Clinton to give force to the existing plan."
Tokyo is reviewing a plan to relocate the Futemma base to a new facility to be built at the Marines' Camp Schwab in line with the 2006 agreement, due in part to growing expectations among the people of Okinawa for a smaller U.S. military presence on the southern island.
The Futemma relocation is part of a broader bilateral agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan and is linked to the transfer of around 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam by 2014.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, which trounced the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in August's general election, heads the three-month-old coalition government with the People's New Party and the SDP, whose votes are needed to pass bills in the House of Councillors.
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