Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, recently heard boasting of having personal connections to the newly empowered Republicans in Washington, appears energized toward achieving his campaign pledge of getting Yokota Air Base back from U.S. control.

But his eagerness is not shared by municipalities near the U.S. base, which, despite all the annoyance it causes, has long provided jobs as well as brought in central government subsidies.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government last month published its latest policy paper on the capital's airspace in which it reaffirmed its desire to seek temporary joint-use of the base and, ultimately, the site's reversion to Japan.

One reason behind Ishihara's desire to see progress on the matter, observers claim, is that the airspace under control of the U.S. base presents problems for his hopes of expanding operations at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

"The reversion and reduction" of the U.S.-controlled airways is necessary to pave the way for more flight routes in and out of Haneda, according to the metro policy paper.

Noting at a press conference that Yokota's airspace divides Japan's airspace into east and west by stretching from the Izu Peninsula to Niigata Prefecture, Ishihara said, "You see how unreasonable Yokota's existence is for Japan in this time of peace."

A senior Defense Agency official shared the governor's concern over the U.S. flight zone over the capital, saying this issue is more urgent than that of the base's return.

However, the Yokota-controlled approach and departure routes, and the airways linking up to them, are not restricted to use by U.S. aircraft and can usually be traversed by other aircraft on request to air traffic controllers -- just like other controlled airspace in Japan.

"Japan should say what we need to say to the U.S.," the official said, adding that transportation bureaucrats should have raised the airspace issue during discussions with their U.S. counterparts. "Generally speaking, (Japanese officials) tend to avoid matters concerning the Japan-U.S. security alliance," added the official, who declined to be named.

In an apparent attempt to increase public support for his idea, Ishihara is stepping up efforts to engage the municipalities around the base.

Last fall, the municipalities cohosting Yokota were irked by the U.S. Navy's night landing practice at the base.

Navy fighter planes from the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, which is based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, conducted multiple touch-and-go landings.

Because these operations are designed to simulate an approach to a very short carrier deck, after touching the runway the pilot applies full power to get airborne quickly -- just as they would while at sea if their tailhook failed to snag an arresting cable on the carrier's flight deck.

The training is required for pilot-readiness to ensure that the carrier fulfills its security tasks. However, it generates loud noise and, subsequently, local protests.

Since 1993, such practice had been mostly conducted at a training strip built by the Defense Facility Administration Agency on Iwojima Island. However, the navy conducted more than 75 percent of its night landing practice at four mainland bases last year due to poor weather at Iwojima, according to the DFAA.

Given that a substantial portion of these were conducted at Yokota, unlike the previous year, Ishihara and other observers suspect September's drills may have been a blatant demonstration of the navy's determination to ensure the base stays under U.S. control.

The September practices were followed by an unprecedented number of complaints pouring in to the municipal governments around the base as well as to the DFAA.

The cities of Akishima, Tachikawa, Fussa and Musashimurayama and the towns of Hamura and Mizuho received 458 complaints altogether, according to the metro government.

The September night landings also angered municipal governments in other parts of Japan that also host U.S. bases where drills were carried out, reigniting concerns about the U.S. military presence.

The city of Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, the site of Atsugi Naval Air Station, where the Kitty Hawk's aircraft stay when the carrier is in port, and the city of Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, site of Misawa Air Base, suspended friendly relations with the navy after night landing practices were conducted despite their protests.

A metro government board made up of Ishihara and the heads of the six municipalities near Yokota met in November and municipal leaders vented their opposition to the night drills.

The board later that month submitted letters to the central government and the U.S. Forces in Japan demanding a halt to the practices and promotion of a comprehensive solution, "including the realignment, reduction and reversion" of Yokota Air Base.

Although this appeared to be a policy turnaround for the board, which was set up as a forum to discuss various base-related problems on the understanding that the base is a part of daily life, many observers said it will not be that easy for the governor to win the full support of the local municipalities, which have long depended on central government subsidies for hosting the base and on employment generated by the facility.

"It was Mr. Ishihara who told the board to include mention of the base's reversion as a means to protest the night landing practices," one official at Fussa City Hall said. "But our city does not oppose the base itself, which exists because of the central government's (security) policy."

Meanwhile, there are suggestions that facilities at the base are not being fully utilized. Of the 2,709 housing units at Yokota Air Base, approximately 180 are temporarily vacant due primarily to the transfer of C-130 aircraft personnel to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, according to the public affairs office of the Air Force in Yokota.

The Air Force is considering renting on-base housing units to U.S. civilians working at the base and their families to "adjust to fluctuations in family housing occupancy rates and thus maximize occupancy rates," according to the force.

"If they do have spare land and facilities, we want them back," said Yoichi Endo, a member of the Fussa Municipal Assembly.

Although most of the city's residents apparently have not given serious thought as to how they might use the land if it were returned, many residents are bothered by the traffic and other problems the sprawling facility has caused, he said. "If they return even a portion of the base, it would be good for our daily life."