May 28 03:55 AM US/Eastern
TOKYO, May 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Friday the government will make its utmost efforts to win approval from leaders in Okinawa Prefecture on the relocation deal for a U.S. Marine base in the prefecture, which Tokyo and Washington agreed to earlier in the day.
The deal is broadly in line with a 2006 accord agreed on by a government led by the Liberal Democratic Party, despite months of discussions over alternative sites within the coalition government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
But Kitazawa said he is satisfied with the fresh deal as it includes plans to ease the base-hosting burden on Okinawa and emphasized that the two countries were able to maintain the relations of trust, shrugging off concerns that a longstanding feud over the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station soured the relationship.
"We were able to reach the agreement because of solid relations of trust between Japan and the United States," he said.
Kitazawa was speaking after the Japanese and U.S. governments agreed to build a relocation facility in the Henoko district in a less crowded area of Okinawa to move Futenma there, with the aim of reducing the burden on Okinawa and reducing the risks by the base on local people.
The agreement, which runs counter to Hatoyama's promise to transfer Futenma outside of Okinawa or Japan, has already spurred a fierce backlash from local residents and upset one of the two coalition partners of Hatoyama's ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
Kitazawa admitted that the government had to give up on the premier's promise, as the eight-month-long examination of alternatives helped it conclude that the U.S. Marines need to stay in Okinawa to act as a deterrent and ensure the security of Japan.
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