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Official: No Futenma decision before Obama trip

TOKYO — Japan is unlikely to make a decision before President Barack Obama visits next month on the planned relocation of a major Marine Corps airfield, officials said Thursday.

U.S. and Japanese officials agreed three years ago to shift 8,000 Marines on the southern Japan island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam and to move the Futenma air field to near Camp Schwab, which is located in a less crowded area of Okinawa.

While the plan would lighten Okinawa’s share of hosting the roughly 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan, it has met with resistance from opponents who want the base closed completely and not replaced, or moved off Okinawa altogether.

The opposition has stalled efforts to settle on a final plan for where the base should be relocated, although the Camp Schwab area remains the most likely candidate.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month, has said he wants to review the agreement, which was made with Japan’s previous conservative leaders.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano on Thursday said he does not expect the Futenma issue to be settled before Obama’s visit next month.

“I’m afraid it would be difficult to make a political decision and resolve the issue then,” Hirano told reporters.

He hinted a decision might have to wait until next year.

Hirano said Hatoyama wants to weigh the outcome of mayoral elections in Nago, where the proposed new base would be built, before making his decision. The election is to be held in January.

The base issue has become a major sticking point between the two allies.

Under a post World War II mutual security pact, the U.S. has about 47,000 troops stationed in Japan. More than half are deployed on Okinawa, which has long caused complaints on the island that it bears too much of the burden of hosting the U.S. forces.

Washington has strongly urged Japan’s new government to stick with the existing agreement and move forward with the needed construction so that it can go ahead with its overall realignment plans.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was in Tokyo earlier this week, said that other options had been studied, but were politically and operationally untenable.

He said he expects Tokyo to deal with the issue “expeditiously.”

If the current agreement falls through, he added, the entire deal to relocate troops to Guam by 2014 might be derailed.