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Okinawa Governor Urges Central Government to Address Reduction in US Forces
Okinawa Governor Keiichi Inamine urged Japan's central government Friday to take up with Washington the issue of cutting the number of US troops stationed in Okinawa, Kyodo News reported.
Inamine handed in a written request on the issue in separate meetings with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Yohei Kono in Tokyo, the report said.
The request said US military personnel stationed in Okinawa are disturbing the lives of people in the southernmost island prefecture in various ways, citing accidents involving US military aircraft and vehicles, noise pollution, bush fires caused by live ammunition drills and various crimes committed by such military personnel.
Reducing the number of such personnel is "the consensus of the Okinawa people" as Okinawa prefectural and municipal assemblies have adopted resolutions demanding the reduction of US military forces in the wake of a series of crimes committed by US soldiers in the prefecture, the request said.
Inamine also intends to submit the request to Ryutaro Hashimoto, state minister in charge of Okinawa issues, and Defense Agency chief Toshitsugu Saito, according to the report.
On February 22, Inamine told an Okinawa prefectural assembly session he will ask the central government to raise the issue of reducing the size of US troops stationed in Okinawa.
On February 25, Inamine told Kono in a meeting in Naha, capital city of Okinawa, that the people of Okinawa can no longer bear the burden of hosting such a big share of the US military.
Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan's territory but 75 percent of the land occupied by US forces in Japan. Some 25,000 US military personnel are stationed in Okinawa, more than half the 47,000 such personnel in Japan.
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