Japan PM scraps US base move plan

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said it will not be feasible to entirely remove a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa.

The US Marines’ Futenma base is deeply unpopular with many residents and removing it had been a key election pledge of the prime minister. But on a visit to the island, Mr Hatoyama said “realistically speaking, it is impossible” to fully relocate it. The island is home to over half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.

Mr Hatoyama, speaking on his first visit to Okinawa since becoming prime minister, said maintaining the base in some form was needed for national security, under Japan’s post-war military alliance with the US. He called on the Japanese people to be “willing to share the burden, because the bases are necessary for national security”.

The US has been staunchly opposed to any renegotiation of the deal, and the row has damaged bilateral ties. It has also undermined support for Japan’s centre-left government. Mr Hatoyama took office in September, promising to steer Japan into a more independent relationship with the US – reassessing Okinawa was a central part of this pledge. Islanders have been angered by incidents involving US troops based there, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by three US servicemen and a helicopter crash on a university campus in 2004.

Okinawa is the focal point of the security treaty between the US and Japan which has balanced military power in the north-east Asian region since the end of World War II. Under the pact, Japan – which is prevented from maintaining a war-ready army by its pacifist constitution – subsidises the US military presence while the US guarantees Japan’s security.

Full Story from BBC NEWS at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8658901.stm