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Okinawa Can No Longer Bear US Military Burden: Governor
The people of Okinawa, the southernmost Japanese prefecture, "can no longer bear" the burden of hosting such a large segment of the U.S. military forces, Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine said Sunday.
Meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono in Naha, capital of Okinawa, Inamine reiterated the prefecture's demands that Washington reduce the size and scope of the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, and sought the Japanese central government's backing.
"In a way, we had been reserved about demanding a reduction of the Marines and other U.S. military forces. But we can no longer bear it," Inamine was quoted by Kyodo News as telling Kono while referring to recent incidents in the prefecture involving U.S. officers, including one suspected of arson in the town of Chatan.
In the 40-minute meeting, Inamine also called for revising the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which primarily covers the management and operation of U.S. military bases in Japan, to facilitate the handover of the U.S. soldiers suspected of committing crimes.
Kono said that if operational improvements to SOFA fail to remedy the situation, the Japanese government may have to consider revising the agreement.
Chatan Mayor Choichi Hentona, who met Kono later, said that Kono's intention to seek operational improvements in SOFA was insufficient.
SOFA stipulates that the United States is not bound to hand over suspected personnel to Japanese authorities prior to indictment.
At his meeting with Kono, Inamine also repeated the demands by the prefecture and the city of Nago to set a 15-year limit on the U.S. Marines' partial use of an airport to be built in Nago in northern Okinawa.
The airport in Nago is scheduled to host the heliport functions of the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station in Ginowan in central Okinawa, now occupying land that is to be returned to Japan on condition its heliport functions are relocated within Okinawa.
Okinawa Prefecture accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's territory but 75 percent of the land occupied by the U.S. forces in Japan.
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