Tokyo has agreed to launch negotiations with Washington on a new pact that would effectively revise the framework for keeping U.S. forces in Okinawa, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told prefectural Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima Wednesday in Tokyo.
The Okinawa Prefectural Government has been pressuring Abe to revise the Status of Forces Agreement that establishes the ground rules for U.S. military bases and personnel in Japan, and to give local officials access to the bases to check on reported contaminated land.
During a meeting at the prime minister's office, Abe also told Nakaima that the central government will pump about ¥300 billion a year into the Okinawa economy until fiscal 2021 and try to move some training operations of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft outside the prefecture.