Japan and the US yesterday agreed that Guam will host about three weeks of US military drills involving Okinawa-based F-15 jets in an effort to ease the burden on the Japanese island.
As part of measures to reduce the heavy US military presence on Okinawa, which hosts US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, some of the fighter drills will be transferred to the US Pacific island territory, the Japanese defense ministry said. Japanese Minister of Defense Toshimi Kitazawa yesterday met Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, who was re-elected as the island chain’s chief administrator last year promising to have the base moved off the island.
Under the accord, around 20 out of 50 F-15s will conduct training in Guam for about three weeks during each drill.
Japan and the US squabbled for much of the past year over the relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, amid hardening opposition among residents of the southern island to the large US military presence.
The base lies in an urban area of Okinawa, where residents have long complained about aircraft noise and the risk of accidents, and is set to be relocated to a coastal, less developed location on the island.
Kitazawa also told the governor that Japan would enter talks with the US about starting the process to hand back the Gimbaru training area on the island by the end of March next year.
The two governments agreed in 1996 on the return of the 60-hectare site where the US military conducts helicopter take-off and landing exercises, as well as amphibious training exercises.
Nakaima told reporters after their talks that Futenma is a “separate issue” from the transfer of exercises to Guam and the return of Gimbaru training area.
The Futenma issue has angered islanders as the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) pledged to remove the base when it came to power in 2009, but later backed down as it failed to find a suitable alternative site.
The DPJ’s first prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama pledged to scrap a 2006 bilateral pact to relocate the base to coastal Henoko, still on Okinawa, and instead promised to move it off the island.
However, Hatoyama flip-flopped as Washington ramped up pressure for the base to stay put, eventually backtracking on his pledge and stepping down last year having managed to offend both Okinawans and the US. Japan and the US reaffirmed they would move the base to Henoko as originally agreed, despite local opposition and concerns the offshore runways would spoil a fragile marine ecosystem.
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