Naha to push Futemma transfer within Okinawa as policy

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

NAHA, Japan, July 23 Kyodo

The Okinawa prefectural government decided Friday to promote the transfer of the heliport functions of a U.S. Marine Corps base to a site within Okinawa as part of a policy package for fiscal 2000 to be submitted to the central government. The support for relocating the heliport functions of Futemma Air Station within the prefecture marks a departure from the policy last year of former Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota to seek a new location outside Okinawa, including overseas sites. The change in policy follows Ota's defeat in the gubernatorial elections in November last year to Keiichi Inamine, a businessman who campaigned on a platform supporting relocation within the prefecture. The prefectural government is scheduled to formally compile its final list of priority policies for fiscal 2000 on Aug. 9 and submit it Aug. 10 to Okinawa Development Agency chief Hiromu Nonaka, who concurrently serves as chief cabinet secretary. Japan and the United States agreed in 1996 to close the Futemma Air Station in Ginowan, central Okinawa, in five to seven years on condition the base's heliport functions be relocated elsewhere in the prefecture. A passage in the policy list says the prefectural government will promote the early reversion of Futemma to Japan and proceed with work to choose candidate sites for relocation with the understanding and cooperation of municipal governments, prefectural officials said. In the list of priority policies for fiscal 1999 issued last year, the prefectural government proposed mainland Japan, Hawaii and Guam as possible sites to take over the heliport functions.