Ginowan mayor renews call for return of U.S. Futemma base in 5 yrs

Japan Policy & Politics, March 1, 2004

NAHA, Japan, Feb. 26 Kyodo

Yoichi Iha, the mayor of Ginowan in Okinawa Prefecture, renewed his commitment Thursday to seek the closure of the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station and the return of the land within five years.

''I will urge the Japanese and U.S. governments to return the Futemma air station within five years,'' Iha said in his policy speech at the city assembly of Ginowan where the base is located.

Iha also reiterated his opposition to a planned relocation of the Futemma base to the northern Okinawa city of Nago.

He said a final 1996 report by the U.S.-Japan Special Action Committee on Okinawa, in which the relocation of the base was agreed upon, is aimed at reducing the burden of the local people.

But he said, ''Noise problems have increased'' in Okinawa, contradicting the original intent of the report.

The city has earmarked about 13 million yen in the fiscal 2004 budget for the return of the base, including costs for the mayor's visit to Washington.

Iha was elected in April 2002, beating a candidate who supported the planned relocation of heliport functions of the U.S. base in Ginowan to a military-civilian airport to be built off Nago.