Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijiro Furukawa told Okinawa Vice Gov. Mitsuko Tomon in a meeting Wednesday that the central government will give positive consideration to the Okinawa Prefectural Government's proposal to make the prefecture a free trade zone by around 2005.
Tomon was delivering the plan, aimed at making the prefecture economically independent by reducing its dependence on U.S. military bases and central government subsidies, to Tokyo. During their meeting at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, Furukawa told Tomon that the government will examine the proposals with a forward-looking attitude.
Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota plans to outline details of the proposal at a meeting in Tokyo today with central government officials. The central government will then ask a group at the National Institute for Research Advancement, a government-run think tank, to study the proposal.