2ND LD: Japan, U.S. to accelerate Okinawa base talks ahead of Obama visit+

TOKYO, Oct. 12 Kyodo -
(EDS: UPDATING 8TH GRAF)
Japan and the United States agreed Monday to accelerate talks on the planned
relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa ahead of
President Barack Obama's visit to Japan next month.

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Kurt Campbell told reporters he gave Akihisa Nagashima, Japan's parliamentary
defense secretary, an explanation about the current transfer plan for the air
station in downtown Ginowan to the coastal region of Camp Schwab in a less
densely populated area in Nago.
''We tried to answer every question and we agreed that this process will
continue,'' Campbell said. ''We hope to have real progress over the course of
the next several weeks in preparation for President Obama's visit here to Japan
in early November.''
Campbell and Nagashima met also to coordinate their views ahead of U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates' trip to Japan next week.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office in mid-September, has
said his government will seek to move the heliport functions of the Futemma air
station outside Okinawa, or even outside Japan.
That goes against a Japan-U.S. accord in 2006 to transfer the air station to
Camp Schwab by 2014.
The Japanese government led by Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, which was
the largest opposition party when the agreement was concluded, has been
studying how the accord was reached, including the choice of the relocation
site.
Nagashima left Monday afternoon for Washington to continue talks with senior
U.S. officials in preparation for Gates' Japan visit.
Before leaving the Defense Ministry, Nagashima told reporters the DPJ-led
government is ''still reviewing'' the Futemma relocation issue and that Tokyo
and Washington will continue talks because there ''remain many issues that were
not clarified today.''
The parliamentary secretary said Japan wants to prevent the Futemma relocation
issue from developing into a major stumbling block in the Japan-U.S. alliance.
==Kyodo
2009-10-12 21:45:27