After touring the U.S. military's Tama Recreation Center in western Tokyo on Friday, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara said what he saw made him question even more whether the 200-hectare site is necessary to U.S. forces and Japan's defense.
"(They) have this extravagant place in the capital of a nation like Japan, and they use it as a matter of course,"Ishihara said at a press conference after his visit to the center, where he was greeted by Col. Mark Volcheff, commander of Yokota Air Base in Fussa, Tokyo.
Since June, Ishihara has demanded the immediate return of the recreation center, which includes an 18-hole golf course, a baseball field, campgrounds and an equestrian area on a quiet residential hill 30 km west of downtown Tokyo.
It is open to U.S. military personnel and their dependents and guests, and had 52,725 visitors in 1998, of whom 32 percent, or 16,886, were Japanese invited by military personnel, according to officials at Yokota Air Base.
"They say they're sharing the facility with many Japanese," Ishihara said, "but I say the Japanese can use all this, and share it with U.S. military personnel." Ishihara has called the U.S. bases in Tokyo "a ball and chain" to the city's development.
This is the second time a Tokyo governor has visited the center. Gov. Shunichi Suzuki toured the golf course in April 1980.