August 3, 2010
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Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has hinted that a final decision on relocating the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture may be postponed until after US President Barack Obama's visit to Japan and the Okinawa gubernatorial election, both scheduled for November.
He made the suggestion to reporters on Monday.
Kan said, as a basic stance, he will seek to resolve the Futenma issue in line with the Japan-US agreement reached in May. He said his aim will be to reduce as much as possible the burden carried by Japan's southernmost prefecture in hosting US bases. He said he is not thinking of settling the issue over the heads of the people of Okinawa.Kan said he understands there are various political events scheduled for November, including US President Barack Obama's visit to Japan to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama. But he added that these schedules would not affect when or what his decision would be on the Futenma base issue.
In the May agreement, Japan and the US confirmed the relocation of the Futenma base to Camp Schwab's Heneko-saki area, also in Okinawa. The accord says that in order to achieve the earliest possible return of Futenma base, the replacement facility's location and construction method should be decided by the end of August.
2010/08/02 23:11(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)
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