Japan Times :: Monday, August 2, 2010

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• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  Two plans eyed for Futenma
  Kyodo News
  A Japan-U.S. working-level group of experts will provide two options for relocating U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Camp Schwab in Nago's Henoko district, a draft report showed Sunday.
  Two runway options will be offered for moving Futenma air station to Nago's Henoko district, the draft of a bilateral report says.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100802a2.html
  
  
• [NATIONAL NEWS]
  DPJ may resubmit policy unit bill
  Kyodo News
  The Democratic Party of Japan will once more consider trying to get a bill passed to upgrade the government's policy unit into a more strategic bureau if it wins support from Your Party, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Edano said Sunday.
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20100802a6.html
  
  
• [OPINION]
  Go past Koizumi's reforms to restore the Meiji spirit
  By HUGH CORTAZZI
  LONDON — "Japan has lost its place in world, no longer serious economic power."
  So read the subhead of a recent article by a Japanese professor and former journalist in a reputable Japanese economic journal. The professor declared that "this stark reality, which many Japanese appear not to have noticed, is the consequence of two lost decades."
  http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/eo20100802hc.html

Election delays runway decision

BY HIROSHI ITO, MASAHIRO TSURUOKA AND KENTARO KAWAGUCHI
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/08/02

A final decision on the type of runway to be constructed for the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma will not be made until December after the Okinawa gubernatorial election set for Nov. 28.

Sources also said Japanese and American officials were moving toward including two different options for the runway to be constructed in the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture.

A report on the Futenma relocation to be compiled by the end of August will include a two-runway option pushed by the United States as well as a one-runway plan now backed by Japan.

In a joint statement issued in late May by Japan and the United States, the two sides agreed to decide on the location and construction methods for the relocated runway by the end of August.

However, Japanese officials argued that if a final relocation proposal was determined while ignoring the local Okinawa governments, the relocation issue could become a major issue in the Okinawa gubernatorial election and negativly affect the relocation.

Thus, the United States agreed to delay holding the meeting to finalize specifics of the relocation.

That will mean that no final agreement will be reached by mid-November when U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Japan. There is also the possibility that the meeting between the foreign and defense ministers of Japan and their U.S. counterparts to reach a final agreement could be delayed until 2011.

Discussions between experts of the two nations dealing with foreign affairs and defense matters had reached agreement on a construction method using landfill.

However, the two sides offered contrasting proposals for the type of runway to be built.

The United States maintained that the V-shaped two-runway plan agreed to by the two nations in 2006 was still the best option.

However, Japanese officials called for a single, I-shaped runway. That proposal would mean a smaller effect on the environment because the landfill area would be smaller.

The administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan also wanted to avoid returning to a proposal agreed to by the then Liberal Democratic Party-led government.

The final report to be compiled by the end of August will analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the two proposals on five different areas: safety, operations, noise pollution, the environment and effects on the local community.

The final report could touch upon the possibility of moving the V-shaped runway further offshore than the 2006 agreement. Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima had indicated before the DPJ took over control of government in September 2009 that he would go along with a revised V-shaped runway at Henoko if it was moved further offshore.

Asahi :: Monday, August 2, 2010

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• Election delays runway decision (08/02)


• Former GSDF officer says he led spy unit (08/02) [Musashi]
  


• Pyongyang touts nuclear weapons progress (08/02)


• List of dead Allied POWs discovered in temple in Kyoto (08/02)


• Niwa assumes China envoy post (08/02)


• Kim book reveals secret of his birth (08/02) [Late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung]
  


• China launches new global positioning satellite (08/02)


• EDITORIAL: Kan's press conference (08/02) [policy speech for a fresh start]
  

Draft of secret accord found

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Surviving relatives of former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato preserved an English-language final draft of a minute of a secret Japan-U.S. agreement made with then U.S. President Richard Nixon during negotiations about the reversion of Okinawa Prefecture over bringing nuclear weapons into Japan, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The existence of the draft has already been revealed in a 1994 book written by the late Kei Wakaizumi, a former professor at Kyoto Sangyo University who served as Sato's secret messenger in the talks with the United States.

But the fact that Sato personally kept the draft together with the official minute of the agreement heightens the credibility of Wakaizumi's assertions that he negotiated with then U.S. presidential advisor Henry Kissinger to create the draft.

The final draft comprises two sheets of paper written in English. The signed minute of the secret accord was made public in December by Sato's second son, former International Trade and Industry Minister Shinji Sato.

According to the son, the relatives found the document when they were sorting through Sato's belongings in 1987, in preparation to rent his house in Tokyo's Daizawa district to former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.

At the time, the relatives found the draft together with the official minute of the agreement in Sato's writing desk.

The contents of the draft are almost identical to those of the signed minute. It states that U.S. forces would be allowed to bring nuclear weapons back into Okinawa Prefecture if a serious emergency occurred involving the defense of the Far East, including Japan, after prior talks with the Japanese government.

"Top secret" and other words are written at the top of the document, and the handwriting is believed to be Wakaizumi's.

According to Wakaizumi's book, published by Bungeishunju Ltd. in 1994, Wakaizumi handed drafts of the minute in both Japanese and English to Sato on Nov. 15, 1969, just before a Japan-U.S. summit meeting held Nov. 19 that year in Washington.

Sato wrote in a diary entry dated Nov. 15, 1969: "I met Mr. Kei Wakaizumi. I was very emotional as the young scholar told me about his passionate negotiations with adviser Kissinger. [The meeting lasted] about two hours."

The draft discovered this time is believed to be one of those Wakaizumi gave Sato at the meeting mentioned in the diary.

A Foreign Ministry expert panel recognized the minute of the secret accord as genuine in its report about the secret agreement released in March.

But the panel concluded the agreement did not constitute a secret accord because it was not binding after the Sato administration. Some members objected to this view.

"I assume the draft was a document to cross-check that the contents were in line with the prior negotiations, when Sato and President Nixon signed the minute of the agreement alone in a small room next to the president's office in the White House," said Prof. Takashi Shinobu of Nihon University, an expert in the history of Japan-U.S. diplomatic relations.

"The discovery of the draft raises the likelihood of the existence of secret talks between Mr. Wakaizumi and presidential advisor Kissinger over the return of Okinawa Prefecture," he said.

The final draft was discovered in the same package in which the minute of the agreement was found.

The newly found document is some proof that Wakaizumi was involved in the negotiations with the U.S. side as Sato's secret messenger.

(Aug. 2, 2010)

Daily Yomiuri Online :: Monday, August 2, 2010

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• Click 基地移設 Base Relocation

• Ozawa indictment decision after DPJ poll / Timing of panel's call seen affecting Sept. 14 election (Aug.2)


• Draft of secret accord found (Aug.2)


• DPJ: Foreigners can vote for PM / Party allows foreign residents to cast ballots in its presidential race (Aug.2)


• Editorial :: Authorities must ensure elderly are protected (Aug.2)

Nakaima wants explanation of Futenma policy shift

August 2, 2010
Click for Video

Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima has called for a detailed explanation of the government's policy change on the relocation of the US air station in Futenma.

Nakaima and Land Minister Seiji Maehara held talks in Naha City, Okinawa, on Sunday. Maehara is also in charge of Okinawa affairs.

Maehara told Nakaima that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku and 4 other ministers will work together in dealing with the planned relocation of the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station to a coastal area of the US Camp Schwab, which is also in Okinawa.

Referring to the government's suggestion of regular consultative meetings with Okinawa, Nakaima said he hopes the government is serious about its proposal.

He added that the prefecture has not received any detailed explanation of the policy change. Under the original plan, all the functions of the air station would have been transferred outside Okinawa.

2010/08/02 00:36(JST)
(JST: UTC+9hrs.)

Japan Eyes 2 Runway Options for Futenma Relocation Report

August 1, 2010

Tokyo, Aug. 1 (Jiji Press) -- Japan will propose to the United States that a joint report this month will include two options for runway construction in a replacement facility for a key U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture, it was learned Sunday.

One of the two options calls for constructing two runways configured in a V shape in a coastal area in Nago, Okinawa, in line with a 2006 bilateral agreement, while the other envisages building a single runway at the same location, informed sources said.

The Japanese government judged that if the two nations decide on one specific construction plan at this stage, resentment over the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station, now in Ginowan, Okinawa, would intensity further among Okinawa residents, who want the base moved out of the prefecture, the sources said.

Japan and the United States will put off a final conclusion on the details of the replacement facility until after the Okinawa gubernatorial election set for Nov. 28, the sources said.

In a joint statement issued in May, the two countries plan to wrap up a study by a bilateral experts' panel regarding the details of the relocation plan, such as the exact location and construction method of the replacement facility, by the end of August and finalize them at a so-called two-plus-two meeting of their foreign and defense ministers in autumn.

(2010/08/01-22:54)