Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa yesterday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said yesterday that no deal on relocating US troops can be expected during Obama’s visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve.
Okada said on TV Asahi that “an agreement between the heads of state holds heavy meaning,” but cannot be expected to be completed during Obama’s visit.
The row over the re-siting of the Futenma Air Base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defense ties between the two countries.
It could also prove a domestic headache for Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose support ratings have slipped since his landslide election victory in August.
“Okinawa’s future is for us, the Okinawan people to decide,” Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha told a supportive crowd, which spilled out of an open-air theater by the beach. “We cannot let America decide for us.”
Organizers put the number of protesters at 21,000. Police estimated the crowd at 6,000.
Under a 2006 US-Japan agreement, the Futenma Marine base in the center of Ginowan is set to be closed and replaced by a facility built partly on reclaimed land at Henoko, a less populated part of the island, by 2014.
The deal, which Washington wants to push through after years of what a military official called “painful” negotiations, is part of a wider plan to re-organize US troops and reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving up to 8,000 Marines to Guam.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has urged Japan to approve the plan ahead of Obama’s visit, which is scheduled to start on Friday.
Hatoyama, who vowed to build a more equal relationship with the US, said in the run-up to his August election victory the base that should be moved off the island.
That view was supported by 70 percent of Okinawa residents in a poll published this month by the Mainichi Shimbun.
Okinawa, controlled by the US until 1972, makes up only 0.6 percent of Japan’s land mass, but hosts about half the US troops in Japan. Those who live near the bases complain of noise, crime, pollution and accidents.
Gushi also sees the row as potentially undermining Japan’s US-dependent security policy, leaving the country vulnerable.
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