Relocating the Futenma military base was not on the agenda in talks on central government budget assistance for Okinawa, its governor and Tokyo's top official for the prefecture insisted Sunday.
By law, Okinawa receives money every year from the central government for various public works projects to stimulate the local economy — money that is completely separate from funding for U.S. bases. Still, Tokyo holds the purse strings and has a large say in how the budget is spent.
Hanging over the meeting between Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima and Ichita Yamamoto, minister in charge of Okinawa issues, on the prefecture's fiscal 2014 budget request is the Jan. 19 Nago mayoral election, which could determine the fate of the long-stalled plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan to Nago's Henoko district.