Japan: US troop burden on Okinawa needs easing

TOKYO — Japan’s new foreign minister said Wednesday that he wants to review the deployment of U.S. troops in his country to ease the burden on the people of Okinawa and ensure that the American military presence in Japan endures.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada also said Wednesday that North Korea and the possible creation of an East Asian community were likely to top the agenda at a summit this weekend among the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea.

Japan hosts about 50,000 U.S. troops, with two-thirds of them on the southernmost island of Okinawa, under a bilateral security pact. The new Tokyo government has said it wants to review their presence, as well as an agreement between the two nations to realign the troops.

“The only way this presence can be sustained in the long term is to make sure that the burden on the Okinawans is decreased in some way,” Okada told journalists at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. “Only by accomplishing these goals will we be able to ensure that the U.S.-Japan alliance will be sustainable.”

A plan agreed to by the prior Japanese government calls for a major U.S. Marine airfield on the southern island of Okinawa to be shut down and replaced with a new facility there. The deal grew out of long-standing complaints in Okinawa about noise and crime related to the heavy U.S. military presence.

Some members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, which won historic elections in August to oust the staunchly pro-U.S. Liberal Democratic Party, want the base moved off Japanese territory entirely.

Washington has insisted that the plan should proceed, although American officials have signaled they are willing to revisit the issue. Okada said he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, and both agreed to study the reasons that led to the troop realignment plan.

“I realize that the governments of the U.S. and Japan have already reached an official agreement on this plan,” he said. “We are, however, in the process now of trying to think if there might be another plan to help reduce the burden on Okinawa,” Japan’s poorest prefecture.

“I told Secretary of State Clinton that I wanted to be able to work as foreign minister to ensure that the U.S.-Japan alliance continues for the next 30, 50 years,” Okada said.

“At the same time, we are very focused on Asia,” he said.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has floated the idea of creating an East Asian community that would enhance economic and trade cooperation among nations in the region, although he has been vague about how the bloc would work.

Okada said the government envisions the community including China, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand as well as the 10 member nations of ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

With different political systems and varying stages of development, Asia is unlikely to see a European Union-like integration under a common currency anytime soon, he said. But as economic ties deepen, cooperation can gradually expand to other areas like energy and the environment.

“We have an end goal that is very ambitious, but we will proceed step by step,” Okada said.

Hatoyama planned to discuss the subject when he meets with his counterparts from China and South Korea this weekend in Beijing, Okada said.

Regarding Japan’s role in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Okada emphasized the need to understand why some people are drawn to the Taliban. He said Japan wanted to address economic motivations by providing income support and vocational training programs.

“Sending troops is not necessarily the only way you can provide support,” Okada said.

Hatoyama has said his government plans to stop Tokyo’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan by January, but has suggested it is looking for other ways to contribute to the effort.