Friday, April 23, 2010
Kyodo News
Choppers need to be close to troops
The United States has rejected the idea of relocating the U.S. Futenma base to Tokunoshima Island, a contentious site favored by the administration of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, because it is too far from Okinawa-based marine units, a government source said Thursday.
Hatoyama has suggested his government will pursue the relocation of the air station to the Kagoshima Prefecture island about 200 km to the northeast, but Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said Thursday it appears resolving the issue by the end of May as promised is "extremely difficult."
A visit by Hatoyama to the city of Kagoshima on May 15 has been in the works, other sources close to him said, but Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano denied that the prime minister would go to Kagoshima Prefecture in connection with the Futenma issue.
Earlier this week, the mayors of the three towns on Tokunoshima rejected a government proposal to meet with Hirano in Kagoshima to discuss the matter, following a massive rally Sunday on the island to protest the base's possible relocation there.
In rejecting the Tokunoshima relocation, Washington informed Tokyo that a helicopter unit should be no further than 120 km from ground forces, according to the source.
The helicopter unit at Futenma is used to transport marines stationed at such bases in Okinawa as Camp Hansen and Camp Schwab.
The United States has told Japan that it is desirable for the two operations to be close enough to enable them to react to situations swiftly, the source said.
"It's an extremely difficult thing (to achieve) because we must clear various hurdles, namely, the U.S. military, local governments and the ruling coalition parties," Kitazawa said at a session of the Upper House Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Referring to a parliamentary debate the previous day in which Hatoyama expressed his determination to see the issue settled by the self-imposed May 31 deadline, Kitazawa said the prime minister "exhibited his resolve in the serious setting, and we will do our utmost toward that goal."
If he visits Kagoshima in mid-May, Hatoyama would attend a gathering of his ruling Democratic Party of Japan's local chapter in the prefectural capital ahead of the Upper House election this summer, according to sources.
But, Hirano said at a news conference, "Isn't it false information?" and added that Hatoyama should go to the municipality where the government will want to relocate the base to ask the local government and residents concerned to accept the proposal.
The Hatoyama government, which came to power in a historic change of government last September, has spent months re-examining the current bilateral plan that seeks to relocate the Futenma base from the crowded city of Ginowan to a coastal area of Camp Schwab in Nago, also in Okinawa, by 2014.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment