U.S. urges Japan to resolve Futenma issue by Dec. 18th

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

U.S. urges Japan to resolve Futenma issue by Dec. 18th

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on December 11 urged the Japanese government to make a final decision by Dec. 18th on the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa.

In his meeting with Shimoji Mikio, the ruling People’s New Party policy research committee head in Washington D.C., Campbell and other U.S. officials said that further delay in reaching a conclusion of the Futenma “relocation” issue will negatively influence the U.S. budget requests for FY 2011.

They told Shimoji that the U.S. government has proposed a plan to relocate part of the Marine Corps helicopter training exercises from Okinawa to the Self-Defense Forces Higashifuji training field in Shizuoka Prefecture as a way to reduce Okinawa’s base burdens.

The SDF Higashifuji training field is one of the places included in the final agreement of the 1996 Japan-U.S. Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) to transfer the U.S. live-fire exercises from Okinawa.

With the latest remarks on the Futenma issue, U.S. government officials have again revealed their hard-line stance toward Japan, following U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said that there will be no relocation of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam without the construction of a new U.S. base in the Henoko district of Okinawa’s Nago City.

On the other hand, their proposal for relocating part of the operations at the Futenma base indicates frustration on the U.S. side.

However, U.S. Marine units are already conducting exercises at the SDF Higashifuji training field around 200 days a year. There will thus be no guarantee for the proposed relocation to reduce Okinawa’s base burdens.

- Akahata, December 13, 2009