Japan's central gov't, city find solution on moving U.S. air base

Japan's central government and Nago city of Okinawa Prefecture reached an agreement in their sixth round of talks on Friday to build two runways at the site of a U.S. military airfield to be constructed in the city, local media reported Saturday.

Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga and Nago Mayor Yoshikazu Shimabukuro agreed that two runways will be built across the tip of Cape Henoko in a V-shape so that U.S. military aircraft will not fly over residential areas and disturb local people's life, the daily Japan Times said.

The agreement ended a bitter battle over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station from downtown Ginowan, thus paving the way to resolving a major obstacle holding up Japan-U.S. efforts to finalize a broad set of plans to realign the U.S. military presence in Japan, Kyodo News said.

At a press conference, Shimabukuro, who had demanded that the runway be moved several hundred meters offshore, said he believed residents' concerns can be resolved by the second runway.

Nukaga praised Shimabukuro for having made a "ground-breaking" decision, saying the government will from now on make more efforts to gain local consent for the moving.

Japan and the United States failed on Wednesday to reach a final agreement on realignment of the U.S. military presence and decided to end the talks one day earlier than scheduled.

The talks split with the two sides holding conflicting stances on the cost sharing of moving some 8,000 U.S. Marine troop from Okinawa to Guam, while they agreed the bilateral senior working- level talks will resume later next week.

Japan and the United States reached an agreement last October on transferring 8,000 U.S. Marine troops out of Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of the U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

Source: Xinhua