Citing several Japanese-U.S. sources, Kyodo News reported that Japan has now begun considering in earnest an alternative plan to reclaim an area between the U.S. Navy facility on White Beach in Uruma and Tsuken Island off the main island of Okinawa.
According to Kyodo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano conveyed Tokyo’s intention not go through with the existing plan to U.S. Ambassador John Roos at a Tokyo hotel.
Kyodo quotes Hirano as telling Roos that the current plan “has become politically difficult to implement.’’
But the U.S. Department of Defense said the agreement reached previously remains “fundamentally the best route” to reducing American forces on the island while ensuring security for Japan.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, accompanied by National Security Council Asia Affairs Director Jeffrey Bader, is due to arrive in Tokyo for meetings with Japanese officials, according to Bloomberg News.
Earlier, the Japanese government was reportedly considering moving the whole Futenma base off Okinawa and transferring it to Guam.
Sen. Judi Guthertz said some of the confusion has been cleared away and the plan to move 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 dependents appears to be still on track.
But Guthertz hopes that the U.S. will heed the warnings of Guam lawmakers, Gov. Felix Camacho, Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., with regard to slowing down the move.
Guthertz said the numerous socio-cultural and economic issues that cropped up during the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement showed that Guam is still not prepared for the buildup.
Japan Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has publicly given a May deadline for settling the dispute between Okinawa lawmakers and Japan’s government regarding the Futenma issue.
Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan ousted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party last August, promising to scrap the U.S.-Japan military realignment accord, which contains the provision to relocate 8,000 Marines to Guam.
But Guthertz doesn’t think the federal government will allow anything to stop the Guam relocation plan and that the move will happen.
Hatoyama’s coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party, has threatened to quit the coalition unless the base is moved off Okinawa.
