Japan to decide today on plan to move disputed US airbase
Source: Agencies |
May 10, 2010, Monday
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THE Japanese government is set to decide today on a proposal to relocate a controversial United States airbase, Kyodo News agency reported yesterday, but there was no sign Washington or local residents would agree to the plan.
The row over relocating the Futenma US Marine base has upset bilateral ties and contributed to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's falling support rates as he faces a midyear election his ruling Democratic Party must win to avoid policy deadlock.
The floundering premier faces grim prospects on settling the feud by his self-imposed deadline of end-May, as speculation simmers that he may have to resign if he cannot do so.
Hatoyama pledged to move the base off the southern island of Okinawa during last year's election campaign that led his party to power.
But the prime minister angered local residents last week by saying he now realized a marine presence was needed for deterrence in Okinawa, host to about half the 49,000 US military personnel in Japan.
Meanwhile, local mayors of a tiny island northeast of Okinawa rejected Hatoyama's proposal last week to shift a part of Futenma's facility there.
The government plan to be decided today will likely modify a 2006 Japan-US deal to shift Futenma's facilities to a site off Camp Schwab, another Marine base in a more remote part of Okinawa, Kyodo said.
Washington's top official for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, said yesterday he was certain a resolution on the base would be reached.
"I remain very confident that we will be able to arrive at an outcome that meets the operational needs of the United States but is also politically responsible," Campbell, the US Assistant Secretary of State, told a news conference in Bangkok.
But Washington remains reluctant about the modification to the 2006 deal, the Sankei newspaper reported.
Facing opposition from Washington, Okinawa and a potential relocation site, the likelihood for Hatoyama to keep his end of May deadline is dimming.
"A resolution by the end of May is impossible," Yukio Okamoto, a former diplomat now with think-tank Okamoto Associates, said on national broadcaster NHK.
The row over relocating the Futenma US Marine base has upset bilateral ties and contributed to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's falling support rates as he faces a midyear election his ruling Democratic Party must win to avoid policy deadlock.
The floundering premier faces grim prospects on settling the feud by his self-imposed deadline of end-May, as speculation simmers that he may have to resign if he cannot do so.
Hatoyama pledged to move the base off the southern island of Okinawa during last year's election campaign that led his party to power.
But the prime minister angered local residents last week by saying he now realized a marine presence was needed for deterrence in Okinawa, host to about half the 49,000 US military personnel in Japan.
Meanwhile, local mayors of a tiny island northeast of Okinawa rejected Hatoyama's proposal last week to shift a part of Futenma's facility there.
The government plan to be decided today will likely modify a 2006 Japan-US deal to shift Futenma's facilities to a site off Camp Schwab, another Marine base in a more remote part of Okinawa, Kyodo said.
Washington's top official for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, said yesterday he was certain a resolution on the base would be reached.
"I remain very confident that we will be able to arrive at an outcome that meets the operational needs of the United States but is also politically responsible," Campbell, the US Assistant Secretary of State, told a news conference in Bangkok.
But Washington remains reluctant about the modification to the 2006 deal, the Sankei newspaper reported.
Facing opposition from Washington, Okinawa and a potential relocation site, the likelihood for Hatoyama to keep his end of May deadline is dimming.
"A resolution by the end of May is impossible," Yukio Okamoto, a former diplomat now with think-tank Okamoto Associates, said on national broadcaster NHK.
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