Japan and the United States agreed Thursday to begin talks on resuming civilian flights at the U.S. Marine Corps Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Foreign Ministry officials said.

A panel on facility coordination of the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee on the Status of Forces Agreement will take up the issue, according to the officials.

The U.S. air station at Iwakuni was used as a civil airport from 1952 to 1964. Local municipalities and chambers of commerce have long been lobbying for its civilian use again.