Hard for Okinawa to accept US base plan
Source: Agencies |
May 24, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
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THE governor of Japan's Okinawa said yesterday it would be tough to accept a United States-Japan plan to keep a controversial US air base on the southern island, dealing a blow to the government ahead of a mid-year election.
Voter perception that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mishandled the Futenma air base row has eroded government support, threatening the ruling Democratic Party's chances in the upper house election, which it must win to avoid policy deadlock.
Hatoyama has set himself an end-May deadline to resolve the problem, which has also frayed ties with Tokyo's key security ally Washington just as the two countries believe to confront security challenges in the region.
Hatoyama said yesterday he had concluded the base should be shifted to the Henoko area of the northern Okinawa city of Nago - largely in line with a 2006 US-Japan agreement.
"Concerns and anger that people in Okinawa have are understandable," Hatoyama told Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima in a meeting at the Okinawa prefecture office, as a crowd of protesters stood outside carrying signs opposing the plan and shouting "Go home."
"But as shown in recent developments in the Korean peninsula, uncertainty remains over security in East Asia and we cannot let the deterrence of US military forces in Japan decline."
"It is a heart-rending decision for me," Hatoyama added and apologized to the people of Okinawa, for failing to shift the base off the island.
But the governor of Okinawa, host to about half the US forces in Japan, said it would be hard to win local support for the plan.
"The idea of moving the base to Henoko is quite regrettable and (accepting it) is extremely tough," Nakaima told Hatoyama in the meeting, aired live on nationwide TV.
Voter perception that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has mishandled the Futenma air base row has eroded government support, threatening the ruling Democratic Party's chances in the upper house election, which it must win to avoid policy deadlock.
Hatoyama has set himself an end-May deadline to resolve the problem, which has also frayed ties with Tokyo's key security ally Washington just as the two countries believe to confront security challenges in the region.
Hatoyama said yesterday he had concluded the base should be shifted to the Henoko area of the northern Okinawa city of Nago - largely in line with a 2006 US-Japan agreement.
"Concerns and anger that people in Okinawa have are understandable," Hatoyama told Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima in a meeting at the Okinawa prefecture office, as a crowd of protesters stood outside carrying signs opposing the plan and shouting "Go home."
"But as shown in recent developments in the Korean peninsula, uncertainty remains over security in East Asia and we cannot let the deterrence of US military forces in Japan decline."
"It is a heart-rending decision for me," Hatoyama added and apologized to the people of Okinawa, for failing to shift the base off the island.
But the governor of Okinawa, host to about half the US forces in Japan, said it would be hard to win local support for the plan.
"The idea of moving the base to Henoko is quite regrettable and (accepting it) is extremely tough," Nakaima told Hatoyama in the meeting, aired live on nationwide TV.
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