Gates urges Japan to decide on U.S. base issue before Obama visit

TOKYO, Oct. 22 Kyodo -
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged Japan to reach a conclusion
before President Barack Obama's visit next month on where a U.S. military
airfield in Okinawa should be relocated, government sources said Thursday.
The request was made when Gates met with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya
Okada on Tuesday, the sources said. During the talks, Gates said that
relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan to Nago,
another Okinawa city, is the only feasible plan.
But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Thursday reiterated Tokyo's stance of
taking time on the issue, saying he does not believe Japan has to draw a
conclusion by the time Obama visits Japan on Nov. 12-13.
''I understand their desire to see our decision soon, but we have only just
launched a government,'' Hatoyama told reporters. ''I'm more concerned there'll
be trouble if we make a hasty decision and it turns out to be wrong.''
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory in the August
general election, wresting power from the Liberal Democratic Party, which had
ruled Japan for most of the past 54 years and forged the relocation deal with
the United States in 2006.
Hatoyama has said he wants to wait until after the Nago mayoral election in
January before making any decision. The relocation issue will likely be the
focus of the election.
''I don't think we must give our answer to President Obama when he comes (to
Japan),'' he said, adding he believes Afghanistan's reconstruction would be a
bigger issue for Obama in their next talks.
''Given the prime minister's comments, I presume that it would be difficult
(for the Japanese government) to come up with a political decision (before
Obama visits),'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a press
conference earlier in the day.
As part of the 2006 bilateral accord on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan
that took years to reach, the Futemma Air Station is to be relocated from
downtown Ginowan to off the coast of a less densely populated area in Nago by
2014.
Hatoyama earlier said his government will seek to move the heliport functions
of the Futemma facility outside Okinawa, or even outside Japan. But the
government has recently become noncommittal on how it will review or possibly
even alter the Japan-U.S. accord.
During talks with the U.S. defense chief, Okada said he is ''fully aware of the
existence of the Japan-U.S. accord'' and wants to reach a conclusion at the
earliest possible date.
But he also sought understanding of the ''difficult political situation,''
referring to the outcome of the Aug. 30 House of Representatives election in
which candidates who were negative about the current Futemma relocation plan
won in all four single-seat constituencies in Okinawa.
Gates' two-day visit to Japan until Wednesday was partly aimed at laying the
groundwork for Obama's visit to Japan.
He was the first U.S. Cabinet member to visit Japan since the September launch
of the new Japanese government led by the DPJ, which hopes to review the
planned realignment of U.S. forces in Japan as part of its policy to seek more
''equal'' Japan-U.S. ties.
==Kyodo