What are the chances of growing support for a US armed forces base in Japan or Okinawa?”
TOKYO — Japan’s new government appeared to bow to intensifying pressure from visiting top U.S. military officials, saying Friday it supports keeping a major U.S. Marine airfield on the southern island of Okinawa. The move narrows — but doesn’t close — a rift between the two alliance partners ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit in three weeks. The new Tokyo administration, elected in a landslide in August, is eager to assert a more independent stance with Washington — but doesn’t want to unduly strain ties with its chief ally and key trading partner. The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has suggested it would like to make changes to a 2006 agreement that would realign the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan, including moving 8,000 Marines to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. A major sticking point has been the future of Futenma airfield, which under the pact would be relocated to a less crowded part of Okinawa. However, Hatoyama has suggested he would like the airfield moved of
TOKYO — US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday rejected demands by Japan’s new government to review a deal between the two allies on the future of a controversial major US airbase. Gates made the comments on his plane en route to Tokyo, before he arrived as the first top US official to visit Japan since the new centre-left government took power here just over a month ago. New premier Yukio Hatoyama pledged during campaigning to look again at the 2006 agreement struck by his conservative predecessor and the former US administration of George W. Bush. That agreement calls for relocating by 2014 the US airbase from an urban part in the south of Okinawa to a coastal area on the north of the island, and transferring 8,000 Marines off Okinawa to Guam. But Gates ruled out major revisions to the deal after Hatoyama earlier suggested the base may be moved entirely off the island. “We think we need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated,” Gates said hours before he met Japan’s
Japan’s prime minister sidestepped questions on Saturday about reports he was about to agree to keep a U.S. military base on Okinawa island, a move that would settle a dispute with Washington but upset locals. Japan’s Asahi newspaper said on Saturday it was increasingly likely he would agree to the plan, and Sankei newspaper has said he would tell U.S. President Barack Obama, when he visits next month, that the matter would be settled by year-end. Many residents on the island of Okinawa, home to about half the 47,000 U.S. military forces in Japan, complain about crime, noise and pollution associated with the bases and say they have borne an unfair share of the burden for the security alliance. Sources: Yahoo!
