Thousands of Japanese protest US base plan

FE Team | Published: November 09, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

A protester holds a placard during a mass rally against a US base in Ginowan on Japan's southwestern island of Okinawa.

GINOWAN, (Japan), Nov 8 (Reuters): Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa Sunday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama.
The row over the re-siting of the Futenma air base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defense ties between the two countries, seen as key in a region home to a rising China and an unpredictable North Korea.
It could also prove a domestic headache for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose support ratings have slipped since his landslide election victory in August.
"Okinawa's future is for us, the Okinawan people to decide," Ginowan mayor Yoichi Iha told a supportive crowd which spilled out of an open-air theater by the beach. "We cannot let America decide for us."
Under a 2006 US-Japan agreement, the Futenma Marine base in the center of the city of Ginowan is set to be closed and replaced with a facility built partly on reclaimed land at Henoko, a remoter part of the island, by 2014.
The deal, which Washington wants to push through after years of what a military official called "painful" negotiations, is part of a wider plan to re-organize US troops and reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving up to 8,000 Marines to Guam.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has urged Japan to approve the plan ahead of Obama's visit, which is scheduled to start on November 12.
Hatoyama, who has vowed to build a more equal relationship with the United States, said in the run-up to his August election victory the base should be moved off the island.