Japanese experts proposed Thursday that plans to move the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station in Okinawa be pushed forward without setting a time limit on the military use of a replacement facility.
Experts at a George Washington University symposium voiced support for the government's plan to relocate the helicopter operations of the base in Ginowan, central Okinawa, to an offshore airport to be built off Camp Schwab in the city of Nago.
These experts included Akikazu Hashimoto, professor at National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, and Kurayoshi Takara, professor of history at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa and a former member of the advisory board to Okinawa Gov. Kenichi Inamine.
The Okinawa government has demanded a 15-year limit on the military's use of the new facility as a condition for its acceptance, though the U.S. has rejected the demand.