Mayor calls for early return of U.S. base site

The mayor of an Okinawan city which has long been forced to endure the heavy burden of a U.S. Marine Corps Air Station is calling on the government to remove the base within five years.

Futenma City Mayor Iha Yoichi on May 12 visited the Okinawa Prefectural Government as well as the Okinawa offices of the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Agency to make a case for the USMC base site to be returned to the city by 2008.

Mayor Iha's request included cooperation with him in implementing the action program which Ginowan City drafted for the return of the USMC Futenma Air Station site. He also requested a review of the plan to construct a state-of-the-art on-sea air base off Nago City as the substitute for the Futenma base.

Ginowan citizens and Okinawans are still forced to endure unbearable noise from the Futenma base even though Japan and the United States in 1996 agreed on a plan to return the Futenma base site to the city within 5-to-7 years.

"Eight years have elapsed without the Japan-U.S. agreement being implemented because the promise to remove the Futenma base was made conditional on the construction of a new U.S. base. Ginowan citizens are forced to endure even more serious noise problems." Iha said.

Referring to the on-going global realignment of U.S. military bases, The mayor said, "Despite the on-going overseas realignment of U.S. military bases, residents' burdens associated with U.S. bases in Japan are increasing near the Futenma, Kadena (Okinawa) and Iwakuni (Yamaguchi) bases."

"The deploying of U.S. bases to Japan should not be left untouched, and in particular, the Futenma Air Station must be returned within five years," he stated.

Government officials told Iha that the new air base plan must be promoted but said the government has no plan to review the 1996 agreement of the Japan-U.S. Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO). (end)