By John Brinsley and Sachiko Sakamaki March 3 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s government will keep a U.S. military base on Okinawa, meeting the demands of the Obama administration, even if that means alienating a coalition partner and local people, a vice defense minister said. Okinawan residents, who want the Marine base moved off the island, will be offered “compensation” for accepting the government’s decision, Akihisa Nagashima said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday, without elaborating. His remarks are the most definitive by a government member indicating the base can stay on Okinawa. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has set a May deadline for settling a dispute that has overshadowed the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-Japan security treaty. Almost 50,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Japan, more than half of whom live on Okinawa, located 950 miles (1,530 kilometers) south of Tokyo. Any solution “must be operationally doable to the U.S.,” said Nagashima, 48, a lawmaker with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan . In regard to the coalition, “the question is whether we get a divorce and go our separate ways, or find a political compromise,” he said. The U.S. won’t pay compensation itself, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said in Washington in response to a question about Nagashima’s remarks. The U.S. is working closely with the Japanese government to relocate parts of the base as planned, Crowley said. “I would not suggest this will involve any particular payments by the U.S.,” he said. U.S. Officials Due Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg , accompanied by National Security Council Asia affairs director Jeffrey Bader , is due to arrive in Tokyo on March 4 for meetings with Japanese officials. The U.S. Defense Department referred to comments last week by spokesman Geoff Morrell , who said the agreement reached previously remains “fundamentally the best route” to reducing American forces on the island while ensuring security for Japan. President Barack Obama has pushed Japan to honor a 2006 agreement signed by a previous government to move the Futenma air base within Okinawa even amid local complaints of pollution, crime and noise. Hatoyama ousted the Liberal Democratic Party in August and campaigned on scrapping the accord, part of a $10.3 billion plan that would also relocate 8,000 Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam. Threat to Coalition Japan’s Social Democratic Party has threatened to quit the coalition unless the base is moved off Okinawa. Nagashima said the government’s minority partner, which has 12 lawmakers, must be realistic. Asked whether that meant the Social Democrats would have to accept this solution, Nagashima said: “Right.” Nagashima, one of two parliamentary vice defense ministers, is a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and obtained a master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. First elected to the lower house of parliament in 2003, he is the author of a book on the U.S.-Japan security alliance. He cited that treaty as the primary reason for keeping the base on Okinawa, saying “the Futenma issue could affect the core of Japan-U.S. relations. The center of the alliance is military cooperation.” To contact the reporters on this story: John Brinsley in Tokyo at jbrinsley@bloomberg.net ; Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo at Ssakamaki1@bloomberg.net
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U.S. Military Base to Remain on Okinawa; Residents May Get Compensation
