OSAKA — The proposal to build a replacement base for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma off the Katsuren Peninsula in central Okinawa Island, stretching from the White Beach Naval Facility to a nearby small island, is the latest idea to be floated in the contentious relocation abyss.

A 2006 U.S.-Japan accord calls for Futenma's flight operations to be relocated to Camp Schwab's Henoko coast farther north on Okinawa Island in Nago, but that option, variations on it and other sites have met with both local and Tokyo opposition.

But the Katsuren-White Beach plan, which Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday was under consideration, appears similar to one originally suggested by Okinawan business leaders over a decade ago.