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Wednesday March 8, 1:05 AMJapan to finalize U.S. military realignment without local consent(Kyodo) _ Japan will finalize an agreement with the United States in early April on realigning U.S. forces in Japan, effectively giving up on gaining prior consent from local authorities, government sources said Tuesday.The Japanese government is eying having Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga and Foreign Minister Taro Aso visit the United States for security talks with their U.S. counterparts April 1-2, the sources said. The move reflects Tokyo's prioritizing Washington over local opinion and risks igniting further anger from areas to be affected by the relocation plans. The plans include building a new airfield within Okinawa Prefecture to relocate a U.S. Marine Corps base and stepping up joint operations between Japanese and U.S. forces. The defense and foreign affairs ministers of the two countries agreed in an accord struck last October to finalize and develop the plans, including concrete implementation schedules, "no later than March 2006." The accord stipulates that the ministers have "committed themselves to completing local coordination" by the deadline. Japan therefore has to convince Washington that it will continue to work to gain local understanding after the agreement is finalized. The Japanese government plans to table the proposal for the so-called two-plus-two ministerial meeting at senior working-level talks among defense and foreign affairs officials from both sides to begin Tuesday in Hawaii, the sources said. Though it is likely that the final agreement can be reached between the two governments within this month, Tokyo has concluded it appropriate to aim for early April for the two-plus-two meeting, considering the schedules of the ministers concerned, according to the sources. But whereas Tokyo sees the October accord as an interim report, Washington considers it a basic agreement and appears negative about holding another two-plus-two meeting, the sources said. Municipal and local residents in base-hosting areas have strongly criticized Tokyo for reaching the accord without consulting them in advance, especially regarding the Futemma relocation. Last Sunday, 35,000 protesters rallied in Ginowan, where Futemma is located, against the realignment plans. In Yamaguchi Prefecture's Iwakuni, a plebiscite will be held Sunday to ask whether citizens accept a plan to relocate U.S. carrier-borne aircraft to the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station. Given that local opposition stalled the initial 1996 Futemma relocation plan for 10 years, the Japanese government appears determined to exercise absolute state authority over the national security issue. Tokyo is eyeing a special law to transfer to the central government the Okinawa governor's authority to grant permission for landfills in the new relocation area, so to ensure local opposition in no way hampers the plan this time. During the Hawaii meeting, the two sides are expected to discuss what Japan's share of the cost of relocating thousands of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam will be. The officials will also discuss details of plans to return land on which some U.S. bases in southern Okinawa are located, and plans to reduce the amount of U.S.-controlled airspace at Yokota Air Base, as well as choose where KC-130 air tankers from the U.S. Futemma Air Station will be relocated. |
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