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Okinawa Governor Wants US Drills to Relocate Outside Okinawa
Governor of Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, Keiichi Inamine, said on Monday that he will seek to have at least some of the US military drills in Okinawa relocated to Guam, Kyodo News reported.
"I am considering to ask through the Japanese government about the possibility of relocating them to Guam," Inamine said while answering a question at an Okinawa prefectural assembly session about US military exercises.
It is the first time for Inamine, who took office in December 1998, to take up the issue of relocating US military drills overseas. The governor had previously criticized the idea, which was originally proposed by his predecessor Masahide Ota, as "unrealistic."
"From the viewpoint of easing the burdens of the Okinawa people concerning the US military bases, I would like to ask for relocation of the rotation exercises in which the US Marines move between their bases on the US mainland and Okinawa and other places," Inamine said.
On Sunday, Inamine told Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono, who was on a one-day visit to Naha, capital of the prefecture, that the people of Okinawa Prefecture "can no longer bear" the burden of hosting such a large segment of US military forces in Japan.
"In a way, we had been reserved about demanding a reduction of the Marines and other US military forces. But we can no longer bear it," Inamine said, referring to recent incidents involving US military, including one suspected of arson in the town of Chatan.
In the meeting with Kono, Inamine reiterated Okinawa's demands that the United States reduce the size and scope of its military presence in the prefecture and asked for the central government's backing.
Okinawa Prefecture accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's territory but 75 percent of the land occupied by US forces in Japan.
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