JAPAN/FILE: Japan's Defence Minister plans relocation of US fighter aircraft training

Record ID: 463737

  • Title: JAPAN/FILE: Japan's Defence Minister plans relocation of US fighter aircraft training
  • Date: 21st January 2011
  • Summary: OKINAWA, JAPAN (FILE) (REUTERS) FUTENMA MARINE AIR BASE C-130 TRANSPORT PLANES PARKED ON RUNWAY C-130 TRANSPORT OKINAWA, JAPAN (FILE) (REUTERS) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) KADENA AIR FORCE BASE F-15 EAGLE FIGHTER JET TAXIING ON RUNWAY MORE OF F-15 TAXIING ON RUNWAY BUILDINGS AT KADENA BASE MULTIPLE F-15 FIGHTERS TAXIING
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA5TMWFIHU6AEGOIZ4MZG390BP6
  • Story Text: Japan's defence minister Toshimi Kitazawa visited the southern island of Okinawa on Thursday(January 20), to push a plan that would see the training of some US fighter jets moved to the US territory of Guam.
    Kitazawa met with the governor of the prefecture, Hirokazu Nakaima, to explain the plan that would see US F-15 fighter jet training limited to 20 planes at one time, with the training lasting no more than 20 days.
    Ties between Tokyo and its close security ally, Washington, frayed after Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) took office in 2009. Then-Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama sought to keep a pledge to move the US Marines' Futenma airbase off Okinawa, host to about half of the nearly 50,000 U.S. forces in Japan, while the US wanted the training base to stay on the island.
    Japan and the United States agreed last May, however, to stick to a 2006 deal to keep the base on the island while moving it to a less populous area, which has prompted backlash from those in Okinawa.
    "As for the relocation of the Futenma base complex, I strongly urge you to completely revise the plan agreed on last May 28th. I have promised to the people of this prefecture that I would strive for a relocation outside the prefecture." Nakaima said at the meeting with Kitazawa.
    After handing over the details of the plan to Nakaima, Kitazawa told reporters that while there would be difficulties, it was not a fruitless visit.
    "I fully understand that this is not something that is done easily. As for our feelings however, we hope to provide the people of Okinawa with a concrete sign that we are working to reduce the burden on Okinawa. In those terms, I believe that I was able get the governor to understand," Kitazawa said.
    Japan will pay for the fuel used to move the drills to Guam, according to local media, and as part of the deal, efforts would be made to return the Ginbaru training area near Okinawa's Kadena air force base to Japanese control.
    Kitazawa's visit to Okinawa comes on the heels of the US defence Secretary Robert Gates's visit to Japan, which saw Japan and the US saying they would work together to reduce the burden on Okinawa.
    Japan and the United States have shared similar concerns in recent history. Both countries have condemned the North's deadly artillery attack on Yeonpyeong last year and share wariness over a China's rising military modernization.
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