Japan Vows to Push for Base Relocation 20 Years after Japan-US deal

The Japanese government vowed to push for the relocation of a US air base within the southern island of Okinawa on Tuesday, the 20th anniversary of a Japan-US accord that laid out a plan to return the base site to Japanese control.

    Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that the relocation of the US Marine Corps' Air Station Futenma from a crowded residential district in Ginowan to the less populated Henoko coastal area of Nago "is the only solution" for removing the dangers posed by the base without undermining the deterrence of the Japan-US alliance, according to Japan's News Agency (Kyodo).

    But the central and Okinawa prefectural governments remain at loggerheads over the issue, even though they have dropped lawsuits in which they were suing each other and resumed discussions under a court-mediated agreement reached in March.

Source: QNA