Japan and the United States are unlikely to reach an agreement
on the US military realignment in Japan by the end of this month
due to cost disputes, local media reported Monday.
The Japanese government has pushed out the end-of-March deadline
to early April, Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported Monday,
quoting unnamed sources.
Talks between the two countries failed to make any break through
as Tokyo is unwilling to shoulder 75 percent of the US-projected
cost of relocating 7,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
Former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Vice President Taku
Yamasaki said on Sunday in a TV program that Japan would be able to
shoulder up to 50 percent of the US$10 billion cost at best. He
said it was the consensus view within the ruling party.
American troops have been stationed in Japan since the end of
World War II in 1945. Currently, there are about 50,000 US troops
located there.
Tokyo and Washington preliminarily approved an overall
realignment package on the US military presence in Japan in October
2005 and the two sides were expected to finalize the plans by the
end of March.
The plans have met strong oppositions from local residents of
related areas. People have long complained about crime, noise and
crowding associated with the US military presence.
On Sunday, Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga and
Mayor of Nago Yoshikazu Shimabukuro failed to reach an agreement on
the relocation of the US Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in
Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture, to a coastal area near the US marines'
Camp Schwab in Nago.
Officials from Japanese foreign ministry and defense agency are
expected to hold another round of working-level talks with their
American counterparts later this week over the realignment plan,
Asahi said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2006)
