U.S. to Implement Futenma Relocation as Planned: State Department

Washington, Sept. 13 (Jiji Press)--The United States will make
efforts to implement a Marine base transfer agreement with Japan, State
Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Monday.
The comment made at a press conference indicates that there has
been no change in the U.S. policy on the base transfer even after opponents
to the plan won a majority in Sunday's municipal assembly election in Nago,
Okinawa Prefecture, the relocation site agreed on by the two countries.
In May, Japan and the United States issued a joint statement that
calls for moving the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air
station, now in Ginowan, also Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal area of Nago.
In Sunday's election, candidates backing Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine,
who opposes the Futenma relocation to his city, won a majority of the
27-seat municipal assembly.