Tokyo, October 22: Japan said on Thursday it could not sign off on a planned reorganization of U.S. troops in the country before President Barack Obama visits Tokyo next month, after the U.S. defense secretary bluntly called for the deal to be implemented.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Japan needed more time before making a decision and its priority was to come forward with its new plan to assist Afghanistan before Obama’s visit.
“I understand they want to hurry… but ending up with a bad solution by rushing a decision will create a problem for the future,” Hatoyama said, adding that he did not regard Obama’s visit as the deadline for Japan to reach a decision.
Friction over the military realignment pact could be the first big test of ties between the United States and Japan’s new government, which has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on its closest security ally.
The month-old government’s stance has prompted concerns that security relations between the world’s two biggest economies could suffer at a time when China’s economic clout and military power are growing and North Korea remains unpredictable.
According to Japanese media accounts, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Tuesday that Japan should decide before Obama’s November 12-13 visit to go ahead with a plan to move a U.S. Marine air base on Okinawa in southern Japan to a less crowded part of the island.
Washington also wants Japan to come forward with new forms of assistance to Afghanistan if Tokyo follows through with plans to halt a naval refueling mission backing coalition forces.
Hatoyama said Tokyo should be ready to present new forms of assistance to Afghanistan when Obama visits.
“For President Obama, assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan is a much bigger theme… So I think it’s our priority to come up with Japan’s steps to support them,” Hatoyama said.
A broad deal to reorganize U.S. forces in Japan was agreed in 2006 between Washington and Japan’s long-dominant conservative party, which was ousted by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Democratic Party in an August election.
Central to the deal is a plan to move the functions of the Futenma air base to northern Okinawa, while shifting 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, partly at Japan’s expense. Japan is host to about 47,000 U.S. military personnel as part of the decades-old security alliance.
Hatoyama had said he wants the base moved off the island, where many complain about crime, noise, pollution and accidents associated with U.S. bases, but U.S. officials have ruled that out, saying it would undermine broader security arrangements.
SUPPORT FOR HATOYAMA COULD WAVER
Some experts in Japan criticized Washington’s tough approach.
“In the past, if the United States came out strong, Japan would fall into line. But that is no longer the case,” said Yasunori Sone, a political science professor at Tokyo’s Keio University.
—Agencies