Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a direct request to President Barack Obama in February for the United States to draw up plans for the early return of five facilities and areas leased to the U.S. military in Okinawa, Japanese sources said Thursday.
The United States remains reluctant to say explicitly when the sites may be returned to Japan, because bilateral negotiations have stalled.
In his summit with Obama in Washington on Feb. 22, Abe was quoted as saying, "It would be easier for us to proceed with the relocation of (U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma) if you could bring forward" the process of drawing up the plans, referring to the stalled effort to build a replacement base for Futenma in the prefecture.