Controversy rages over air base in Okinawa
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DEADLOCK over the controversial relocation of a United States military base in southern Japan deepened yesterday when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the anti-base governor of Okinawa.
The two men remained as far apart as ever after a 30-minute meeting that analysts said was largely Abe going through the motions of consultation ahead of a key trip to the US.
Takeshi Onaga said that he asked Abe “to tell President (Barack) Obama that the governor of Okinawa and his people are clearly against” plans to build a new facility on the semi-tropical island’s coast in return for the shuttering of Futenma airbase.
The issue has queered relations between Tokyo and Okinawa, a once independent kingdom that was annexed by Japan in the 19th century, for nearly two decades, and is an irritant in ties with Washington.
Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defense alliance, a proportion many islanders say is too high.
Emblem of ill will
Futenma, whose busy runway sits in the middle of a densely populated city, has become emblematic of that ill will since Washington announced plans to move it in 1996, in what the US hoped would ease tensions.
Locals have blocked the move, saying the facility should go off-island, and last year elected the vehemently anti-base Onaga, who is determined to block construction of a new base.
At the start of yesterday’s meeting, Abe pledged he will “work towards reducing burdens” on Okinawa, but insisted the current plan “is the only solution.”
Onaga hit back that three recent popular votes in Okinawa all “showed overwhelming opposition by Okinawans to the construction of a new base.”
“Okinawa has never voluntarily offered to host bases,” he said, noting that lands were seized during the post-World War II US occupation.
Takehiko Yamamoto, an international politics expert, said Abe is unlikely to compromise on the move.
But he “needs to do something before visiting the United States, as the issue ... a thorn in the side of the Japan-US alliance.”
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