Japan and the United States started a two-day talk on Thursday
over the US military realignment plans in Japan, which have already
met strong local oppositions.
The senior working-level talks, between Japanese officials from
foreign ministry, defense agency and US defense officials, are
expected to be around the US request for Japan to shoulder 75
percent of the US$10 billion cost for relocating about 8,000 US
Marines from Okinawa, most of whom will go to Guam, according to
Kyodo News.
Tokyo and Washington are striving to finalize the overall
realignment package by the end of this month. However, local
residents from related areas of the realignment have voiced strong
protests against US military presence.
Also on Thursday, representatives from the municipalities
affected by the realignment plans visited the Defense Agency and
Foreign Ministry to urge the central government to reconsider the
plans.
Sekinari Nii, governor of the Yamaguchi prefecture, said in
Tokyo that the realignment plan is "unacceptable," after his
meeting with Foreign Minister Taro Aso.
On March 12, an overwhelming 89 percent of the resident voters
in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi prefecture voted "no" to a plan which aims to
relocate 57 carrier-based warplanes to the US Marine Corps' base in
the city.
The plan is a part of an overall realignment package on the US
military presence in Japan which was preliminarily approved by
Tokyo and Washington last October.
Japanese residents in related areas have long complained about
crime, noise and crowding associated with the US military presence.
Recently, people in Okinawa and those in Kanoya, southern
prefecture of Kagoshima have protested against the plans which may
affect their life.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2006)
