OSAKA — After three months of meetings, the recommendations for the Futenma replacement base in Henoko, Okinawa, released Tuesday are vague or nonexistent on specific technical points, with no decision on the runway options, approach and departure paths or completion timetable.
The result is an agreement designed more to satisfy the political short-term needs of the Democratic Party of Japan, which in May promised the report would be done by the end of August, than the long-term operational needs of the Japan-U.S. alliance, and one Okinawans are unlikely to accept and are already opposing, according to U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations.
Tuesday's report analyzed two proposals, a plan for two runways in a V configuration that Japan and the U.S. had agreed on in 2006 and a single runway plan that the report says would be slightly cheaper to build due to the need for less landfill in offshore shallows.