MARCH 31, 2010
By YUKA HAYASHI
TOKYO — Japan told the U.S. that relocating a controversial U.S. military facility in Okinawa was impossible, setting a stage for more thorny discussions that could further erode the popularity of the six-month old government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
In a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton late Monday, Japanese foreign minister Katsuya Okada asked Washington to consider alternative proposals for relocating the Futenma air station, a Marine Corps facility located in a crowded urban area on the southern Japanese island.
Mr. Hatoyama's center-left government took power last September with a promise to the Okinawan voters to scrap a 2006 bilateral accord between the U.S. and Japan that calls for closing Futenma and moving its facilities to a new location in a rural section of northern Okinawa. But the prime minister, suffering sharp declines in popular support, has been criticized sharply in Japan for his handling of the issue, failing to announce a workable alternative and missing his own deadline for settling the controversy. U.S. officials have repeatedly said the existing plan is the only option, giving Mr. Hatoyama a big challenge.
"I said [to Mrs. Clinton] we fully recognized the U.S. position that the existing plan was the best," Mr. Okada told reporters after meeting her on the sidelines of a Group of Eight foreign ministers' meeting near Ottawa. "But given the current situation, I explained to her, there are too many difficulties surrounding that plan."
Phillip J. Crowley, assistant secretary of state, said the U.S. hasn't changed its position, but that it was willing to listen to Japan's current thinking. "We are listening attentively to what Japan is telling us, and we'll continue the conversations in the weeks ahead," Mr. Crowley said at a news conference Monday.
Okinawan lawmakers and residents have been stepping up their opposition to the construction of new facilities, saying the island already shoulders a hefty burden of hosting numerous U.S. military facilities. Some 40,000 U.S. troops are stationed on the island. Others say Mr. Hatoyama is hurting Japan's critically important bilateral ties with Washington by trying to overturn the exiting agreement.
Japan's media have suggested the possibility of a May Crisis for the Hatoyama government—that a failure to settle the Okinawa base issue could pressure Mr. Hatoyama to step down. Hurt by political funds scandals involving himself and party stalwart Ichiro Ozawa, the support rating for the government has fallen to 36%, according to a poll by the Nikkei business daily Monday, nearly half what is was at his inauguration in September.
Mr. Okada reassured Mrs. Clinton that Tokyo intends to settle the issue by end of May, a self-imposed deadline Mr. Hatoyama set after missing his first deadline in December. Mr. Hatoyama has said the government would unveil its alternative proposal by the end of March, before kicking off formal negotiations with local residents and the U.S. But he suggested Tuesday any announcement may be delayed.
"What's important is we are working hard every single day so we can present to everyone a solid plan by the end of May," Mr. Hatoyama told reporters.
Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Okada didn't discuss details of Tokyo's new proposals for relocating Futenma, but Japan's major newspapers have reported recently that such plans include temporarily moving some of the functions of Futenma to multiple locations in and outside of Okinawa while building a permanent base offshore from the existing U.S. naval facility at White Beach in Okinawa.
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