Government to tell Obama Futenma decision shelved

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The government will tell U.S. President Barack Obama that Japan has put off deciding how to deal with the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station during the president's first visit to Japan, which starts Thursday.

According to sources, the government has shelved the decision on the base because it is still examining why and how the current plan to relocate the base in Ginowan to an area off the coast of the Henoko area in the city of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, near the marine corps' Camp Schwab, was established.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Obama will hold talks next Friday at the Prime Minister's Office. Other major issues on the agenda will be Japan-U.S. relations, Japan's assistance for Afghanistan's reconstruction, North Korea's nuclear arms development programs, nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, and climate change.

Concerned that the relationship between the two countries has become strained over the Futenma issue, the government plans to stress that the Japan-U.S. alliance remains the cornerstone of Japan's foreign policy at the meeting. The government also is willing to confirm that the two countries will cooperate in assisting Afghanistan's reconstruction.

Hatoyama plans to propose that Tokyo and Washington begin discussing ways to deepen the Japan-U.S. alliance at various levels with an eye toward the 50th anniversary of the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty in 2010.

"I'd like to deepen the Japan-U.S. alliance at various levels from mid- and long-term perspectives," Hatoyama said last Friday at the Diet.

On Afghanistan's reconstruction, Hatoyama will tell Obama that Japan is willing to significantly expand its financial assistance for the improvement of Afghanistan's social capital. On the other hand, Hatoyama will express his intention not to automatically extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean when the law authorizing the mission expires in January.

Hatoyama is willing to show his support for Obama's declared initiative to pursue a nuclear weapons-free world. Hatoyama will tell Obama that Japan itself is ready to proactively advance measures for nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear proliferation.

Obama will not visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities the United States struck with atomic bombs, because of his tight schedule. The president is scheduled to leave Japan next Friday.