Executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and coalition partner New Komeito indicated Sunday that a minor change could be made to the Japanese-U.S. plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.

"We will not change our basic policy, but some sort of change could be made in the course of sincere negotiations with local authorities," LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Hidenao Nakagawa said on an NHK news program.

Yoshihisa Inoue, New Komeito's policy chief, said on the same news program, "We can deal flexibly with a plan that can gain the understanding of local authorities."