Japan's view on Futenma remains intact despite U.S. senators' appeal

TOKYO (Kyodo) - Japan's stance on the existing plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture remains intact, despite the latest alternative offered by influential U.S. senators, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Thursday.
Edano told a news conference that the plan agreed by Tokyo and Washington last May is ''very solid'' and that there is no change in Japan's policy to ''steadily implement'' the relocation of the air base.
The top government spokesman's remarks came after three powerful U.S. senators said Wednesday the current plan is ''unrealistic'' and recommended instead integrating the Futenma functions with an existing U.S. air base in the prefecture.
Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told reporters that Tokyo must take the recommendation seriously, but also noting that it was proposed by lawmakers, not by the U.S. government, in view of how U.S. taxes must be spent.
''For us, we have to closely watch the views of the U.S. government which has received the proposal,'' Kitazawa said.
Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan and chairman of the Senate Arms Services Committee, said in a joint statement that the relocation plan for the Futenma base is ''totally unrealistic,'' pointing to significant estimated cost growth over some projects as ''unaffordable'' under growing fiscal constraints.
Japan and the United States concluded the accord on May 28, 2010, to move the Futenma base from a crowded residential area in Ginowan to the less densely populated coastal area of Henoko in Nago, also in the prefecture, where the bulk of U.S. forces are stationed under a bilateral security accord.
But strong local opposition also remains over the relocation plan partly because the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan had once raised hopes that the Futenma base would be moved out of the prefecture.
Amid no tangible progress in arriving at a compromise with local authorities, Tokyo and Washington have faced difficulties in organizing the next round of ''two-plus-two'' security talks involving the foreign and defense ministers from the two sides.
The ministerial talks are intended to create an agreement on the configuration of a replacement facility for the Futenma base in Okinawa and to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and U.S. President Barack Obama planned this year.
Mikio Shimoji, secretary general of the People's New Party -- the DPJ's junior ruling coalition partner -- said the Japanese government should ''take special notice'' of the appeal by Levin, Jim Webbs, a Democrat from Virginia, and John McCain, a Republican from Arizona.
Shimoji, a lower house lawmaker whose constituency is in the prefecture, told reporters that the government must review the relocation plan ''from scratch.''
The senators said, ''The Department of Defense should immediately examine the feasibility of moving the Marine Corps assets at Futenma (Air Station) into Kadena Air Force Base, while dispersing a percentage of Air Force assets now at Kadena into other areas of the Pacific region.''
Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said it will be worth watching how the U.S. government and the department will react to the recommendation.
Nakaima, speaking to the press in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, said the aircraft noise from the Kadena base is ''very loud'' and its levels are worsening, so there must be ''realistic'' measures to improve nearby living conditions in any case.
The Kadena base is home to the U.S. Air Force's largest combat wing, the 18th Wing.