Cabinet members to continue talks on Futemma relocation+

TOKYO, Oct. 2 Kyodo -
Four Cabinet members involved in the issue of U.S. military realignment in
Okinawa agreed Friday to continue discussions on where the U.S. Marine Corps'
Futemma Air Station should be relocated to, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa
told reporters.

Kitazawa, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, Foreign Minister Katsuya
Okada and Seiji Maehara, state minister in charge of Okinawa affairs, held
informal discussions to iron out differences in opinion that surfaced in the
government on whether to relocate the base outside Okinawa or within the
prefecture as agreed on between Japan and the United States.
''We don't have much time, so we decided to frequently exchange opinions on the
issue,'' Kitazawa said.
With U.S. President Barack Obama slated to visit Japan next month, Hirano said
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's new government must get ready its own ideas on
the matter and related issues by that time.
''As a timeline, Japan must have some kind of comprehensive ideas by then,''
Hirano, who called Friday's meeting, said in a group interview, adding that he
and the three ministers concerned need thorough arrangements to work out
details.
Hatoyama, who heads the Democratic Party of Japan, has said it is desirable to
move the air station located in downtown Ginowan in Okinawa outside the
nation's southernmost prefecture or even outside Japan.
Kitazawa, who visited Okinawa shortly after assuming the ministerial post, has
said he believes it would be ''difficult'' to transfer the Futemma facility
outside the prefecture.
During the meeting, Kitazawa said his earlier-expressed opinion was ''not
something that showed a certain direction, but was simply a frank impression''
after hearing various opinions at various places, according to Okada.
The realignment of U.S. military facilities is emerging as a sticky issue
between the United States and Japan's new DPJ-led government, which wants to
review the planned transformation of U.S. forces in Japan as part of its policy
to seek ''equal'' Japan-U.S. ties.
Relocation outside the prefecture would go against a Japan-U.S. accord in 2006
to move the heliport functions of the Futemma air station to the Marines' Camp
Schwab in a less densely populated area in Nago, also in Okinawa, by 2014.
Later in the day, the defense minister said in Yokosuka after inspecting a
Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer that parliamentary defense secretary
Akihisa Nagashima of the DPJ-led government will visit the United States next
week to consult on the Futemma relocation issue with U.S. officials.
==Kyodo
2009-10-02 23:51:47