U.S. Sen. Jim Webb expressed hope in Tokyo Thursday that the contentious relocation of the Futenma air base will move forward now that Japan and the United States have agreed to delink the issue from the transfer of thousands of marines to Guam.
The relocation has been blocked by local opposition, with many Okinawa residents, who refer to Futenma as the most dangerous base in the world, trying to get the facility removed from the prefecture.
Japan and the U.S. have been engaged in talks over reviewing a 2006 bilateral agreement to transfer 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam in exchange for relocating Futenma from Ginowan to Henoko in the northern part of the island. In early February, the two governments simultaneously announced that they would "delink" the two to push the base move forward.