The Yamaguchi Prefectural Government will lift a freeze on the sale of land to the central government for American military housing near the U.S. Iwakuni air base, Gov. Sekinari Nii said.
Nii told Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba in a meeting Thursday that the prefecture has decided to sell the land because of the central government's recent guarantee that the base would not receive additional U.S. service members following Washington's ongoing review of its Asia-Pacific defense strategy.
Nii said the prefecture and the city of Iwakuni will arrange the sale of the land by the end of this month. About 75 hectares are expected to be sold to the central government for about ¥16.9 billion.