Japan's foreign minister on Monday presented the United States with alternatives for a military base, hoping to resolve a row that has been a growing thorn in relations between the allies. Japan's left-leaning government is hoping to gauge the US reaction to revising a 2006 agreement on the Futenma air base, which lies in a crowded area of the southern island of Okinawa and is opposed by many residents.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada held a closed-door meeting with Defence Secretary Robert Gates before heading to the White House to confer with James Jones, President Barack Obama's national security adviser. Okada later Monday was to hold more extensive talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton near Ottawa, where foreign ministers of the Group of Eight major industrialised nations are meeting.
The Pentagon said it was reviewing the ideas about Futenma, which Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government first shared last week with the US ambassador in Tokyo, John Roos. "Last week the government of Japan did share its current thinking with regards to the Futenma issue, which will be carefully considered," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
"We respect Japan's request to explore alternatives," Whitman said. "We'll conduct these discussions through diplomatic channels." The United States, while pledging to listen to Japan, has also urged Hatoyama to abide by a 2006 agreement in which Futenma would be relocated to another part of Okinawa.
Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama said that the talks were aimed at seeing US reviews before Hatoyama comes up with a "concrete alternative" by the end of May. "We of course must reach an understanding with the United States, but my government must also reach an understanding with the people of Okinawa and its coalition partners," Kodama said.
The Social Democratic Party, a staunchly pacifist partner in Hatoyama's coalition, has already denounced the alternatives as it seeks a complete removal of Futenma from Okinawa. The United States has 47,000 troops in Japan as part of a security alliance reached after World War II, when Tokyo was stripped of its right to maintain a military.
Okinawa - a subtropical island chain which was under US administration until 1972 - plays host to more than half of the troops, despite accounting for a minuscule amount of Japan's total land mass. The United States set up Futenma, a Marine air base, in Okinawa in 1945 as it took the island in one of World War II's bloodiest battles. But since then, the sprawling city of Ginowan has developed around the base, raising concerns among residents about noise and accidents.
Under the plan sealed in 2006, Futenma's facilities would be shifted to reclaimed land on a quiet stretch of the subtropical island and some 8,000 Marines would leave for the US territory of Guam. Okada is floating alternatives including shifting Futenma's operations to various US bases around Okinawa, with some functions also shifting to Kyushu - one of mainland Japan's four islands. But the United States would still build a new base in the longer term off the Navy's White Beach facility in another part of Okinawa, according to Japanese media reports.
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