Japan may scrap relocation of US base
Source: Agencies |
January 26, 2010, Tuesday
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JAPAN'S prime minister yesterday said he may scrap a key military deal with Washington on relocating United States troops, after a local election in Okinawa showed that residents oppose any new Marine base in their region.
Residents of Nago elected a mayor who is staunchly against moving a base there from a larger city nearby - plans Washington considers fundamental to its troop realignment in the region. An agreement on the relocation was made under the previous government that lost power last year.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said the results of Sunday's election reflected the will of the people, and that Japan would completely re-examine its accord with the US.
"The country will start from scratch on this issue and take responsibility to reach a conclusion by the end of May," he told reporters.
His government has repeatedly put off making a decision, risking a rift with the US, its main military ally.
Nago chose challenger Susumu Inamine - who campaigned against any expansion of US military presence in the area - over incumbent Yoshikazu Shimabukuro. Inamine won with 52.3 percent of the vote.
The city's mayor has little say in national policy, but with Japanese parliamentary elections coming in the summer, the results quickly reverberated throughout the country.
"It wasn't just Shimabukuro that was defeated in the election. The biggest loser was Japan's postwar military base strategy," the Asahi daily said in a front-page editorial yesterday.
Japan signed a deal with the US four years ago that was part of a broader realignment of US troops, after a helicopter crashed into a university near Futenma in Okinawa. The Futenma facility, home to about 2,000 Marines, is one of the corps' largest facilities in the Pacific.
A key part of the plan was relocating that base to the smaller city of Nago. The issue dominated debate between the two mayoral candidates. Shimabukuro supported the base for the jobs and investment it would bring.
The Obama administration has already expressed frustrations with Tokyo's delays in finalizing the relocation of the Futenma base - now in the larger Okinawa city of Ginowan - saying it is delaying a sweeping realignment plan for US military.
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