Situation Worse for Hatoyama over Futenma

Tokyo, April 15 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama now faces a risk of being forced to take responsibility in case he
fails to resolve by the end of May the issue of relocating a key U.S. base
in Okinawa, as his brief talks with U.S. President Barack Obama produced no
result.
Hatoyama, who retuned to Tokyo from a trip to Washington Wednesday
night, initially hoped that a breakthrough would be made on the base issue
at a meeting with Obama on the sidelines of a two-day nuclear security
summit in the U.S. capital through Tuesday.
In line with the nuclear summit, Obama had bilateral meetings with
leaders of more than 10 countries, including Chinese President Hu Jintao.
But no official meeting between the Japanese and U.S. leaders was
set up. Hatoyama only had a chance to talk with Obama for just 10 minutes
during a working dinner for the nuclear summit on Monday as they sat side by
side.
The U.S. leader did not show a positive response to Hatoyama's
request for cooperation to help resolve the issue of where to relocate the
U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan in the southernmost Japan
prefecture of Okinawa.
Hatoyama is committed himself to settling the issue by the end of
May, but the situation has become even more difficult for him following his
fruitless talks with Obama, a government source said.
Commenting on the Hatoyama-Obama talks, Japanese Foreign Minister
Katsuya Okada said at a House of Representatives committee meeting on
Wednesday that the issue is not at a stage where leaders of the two
countries discuss which site is good or bad to relocate the base.
While suggesting that Hatoyama was not able to make tangible
progress on the issue in the talks with Obama, Okada said that he is in
talks with U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos.
Critics say that the U.S. government, which is persistently calling
for the base to be moved to a coastal area of the Marine Corps' Camp Schwab
in Nago, also in Okinawa, in line with the two nations' accord in 2006,
poured cold water on Japan by not arranging a bilateral summit during
Hatoyama's stay in Washington.
In fact, although Tokyo is considering moving part of the Futenma
base's helicopter unit to Tokunoshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture, north
of Okinawa, and build a new heliport in an inland area of the Camp Schwab,
the U.S. side has refused to start working-level talks with Japan on the
option, citing a dim prospect of the idea being supported by local
communities concerned.
Washington is also concerned that the functions of the Futenma base
could be scattered under the Japanese government option.
If any new proposal by the Japanese government cannot satisfy the
U.S. side, Japan would end up asking the U.S. Marines to keep using the
current Futenma base or proceeding with the base's transfer to a Camp Schwab
coastal area based on the original plan.
Against this backdrop, a source in the Japanese government said
that it would be realistic for Japan to keep the Futenma base intact for
continued use by the Marines while implementing measures to reduce the
burden of Okinawa, which hosts most of U.S. military facilities in Japan,
and promote the recovery of the local economy.
As part of steps to ease Okinawa's burden, the government has
started considering a plan to move some military training operations in
Okinawa to Mageshima island in Kagoshima Prefecture.
But Hatoyama at a parliamentary meeting has voiced opposition to
the continued use of the current Futenma base and pledged to resolve the
issue by the end of May by finding an alternative relocation site and
obtaining consent from the U.S. government and relevant local communities in
Japan.
Shigeru Ishiba, policy chief of the biggest opposition Liberal
Democratic Party, said in a speech Wednesday that if the government fails to
meet the deadline, Hatoyama should, of course, be asked to resign as prime
minister.

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