HUA HIN, Thailand (Kyodo) Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said over the weekend that the decision on where the U.S. Futenma military airfield in Okinawa will be relocated does not necessarily have to be reached before President Barack Obama visits Tokyo next month.
Hatoyama also told reporters in Thailand, where he was attending international meetings, on Saturday that he will be the one who decides what to do about the air station, which now sits in the middle of the city of Ginowan. The day before, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada made remarks that appeared to deviate from the prime minister's position.
Hatoyama has instructed Okada and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa to examine possible alternatives to the current relocation plan, which was agreed to in a bilateral accord signed in 2006. The plan would move the airfield's functions to an area off the coast of Nago, also in Okinawa, by 2014.
Okada said Friday he personally favors transferring Futenma's operations to the nearby U.S. Kadena base, while the new administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan is coming under increasing pressure from Washington to abide by the 2006 accord.
But despite such pressure and Washington's call for Tokyo to reach a conclusion by the time Obama visits Japan from Nov. 12 to 13, Hatoyama said: "President Obama will come to Japan, but I don't think it means that I have to be in a hurry.
"I will make the final decision. I will study options and decide on what should be done."
He added it will take some time because the government's decision will have to be acceptable to the people of Okinawa and across Japan.
