Japan to Speed Up Talks on U.S. Base Site Return to Okinawa

Koriyama, Fukushima Pref., March 24 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his government's intention Sunday to accelerate coordination with the United States to show a specific timeline for the return of some of the land occupied by U.S. forces in Okinawa Prefecture. "We will negotiate with the United States so that we can clearly show the schedule, in order to reduce Okinawa's burden" of hosting American military bases, Abe told reporters in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. He was discussing a Japan-U.S. agreement that five U.S. military facility sites south of the U.S. Air Force's Kadena base in Okinawa will be returned in stages to the southernmost Japan prefecture. On Friday, the Abe government applied for the Okinawa governor's permission for landfill work in the Henoko coastal area of Nago, Okinawa, to construct a facility to replace the heliport functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station, located in an urban area of Ginowan, also in Okinawa. The application invited strong protests from local residents who demand that the Futenma based be moved out of Okinawa. The prime minister hopes to gain local support for the Futenma relocation by working harder to lessen Okinawa's base-hosting burden, government officials said. "We must prevent Futenma from being fixed (in Ginowan). The government has responsibility to proceed with the relocation," he said. In a related development, government sources said Sunday that Abe specifically named the Marines' Makiminato Service Area when he asked U.S. President Barack Obama in February to work for the early return of the base sites to Okinawa. Abe told Obama during their talks at the White House that he hopes for U.S. cooperation for the return to Okinawa of military facility sites south of the Kadena base, such as Camp Kinser, according to the sources. The Makiminato Service Area, in the Okinawa city of Urasoe, is known as Camp Kinser. Obama said his administration will deal with the request appropriately, according to the sources. In an April 2012 progress report on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, the Japanese and U.S. governments reaffirmed that the five U.S. military facility sites south of the Kadena base will be returned to Okinawa in stages. The two governments plan to map out and publish soon the timeline for the return. Noting that he is well aware of local residents' strong opposition to the Futenma relocation plan, Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said on a television program Sunday that he will explain to them that the plan will contribute to reducing Okinawa's overall burden of hosting U.S. military bases. Onodera said he thinks that Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima will make a decision in six to eight months on whether or not to approve the government's landfill application if the normal procedure is any guide. The remark can be taken to signal his hope that Nakaima will approve the application before the Futenma relocation plan may become a key issue in the Nago mayoral election in early 2014. END