Japan, US give up linking Marine transfer to base relocation

Feb 8, 2012, 12:47 GMT

Tokyo - Japan and the United States have given up efforts to link a transfer of US troops stationed in Okinawa to a plan to relocate a major US base within the Japanese island, the two governments said Wednesday.

But Tokyo and Washington said in a statement that they still planned to move the functions of US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to a new base on the coast of Nago, northern Okinawa, despite fierce opposition from locals and environmental groups.

As part of a 2006 agreement between Tokyo and Washington, some 8,000 troops were to be transferred from Okinawa to Guam by 2014. The initial plan was contingent upon progress in building the replacement facility in Nago.

The two countries said they would speed up negotiations to revise the transfer of US troops in Okinawa to Guam.

The Pentagon is considering moving about 4,700 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, while rotating 3,300 elsewhere in the Pacific - such as Hawaii, Australia and the Philippines - Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed sources.

Nearly 20 per cent of Okinawa, located 1,600 kilometres south-west of Tokyo, is devoted to US military facilities. Islanders have long been critical of the US military presence and crimes committed by US troops.

The 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl by three US servicemen incurred the islanders' wrath. To ease the anger, the US and Japan decided in 1996 to close the US Futenma air station.

In exchange for the closure, Washington wanted a replacement facility, which Tokyo said they were going to build in Nago.

Nago citizens rejected the plan in a non-binding referendum in 1997.

Okinawans have repeatedly urged Tokyo and Washington to move the US Futenma base off the island.

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