Editorial
Failure on Futenma issue would deal heavy blow to PM's credibility as leader
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is certain to fail to keep his pledge to settle the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma relocation issue in Okinawa Prefecture by his self-imposed end-of-May deadline, raising questions about his leadership as head of the government.
Hatoyama has met with the mayors of the three towns on Tokunoshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, and asked them to accept the relocation of some of the base's functions to the island, only to be rejected. The prime minister then urged the mayors to allow the Marines to conduct exercises on the island, but the mayors turned that down, too, and instead demanded that U.S. bases in Japan be reduced.
Their talks collapsed after the local leaders dismissed the prime minister's request for another meeting.
Prime Minister Hatoyama is now considering a plan to relocate Futenma base within the prefecture while moving some of the troops stationed there or their training site to Tokunoshima. The shifting of some of Futenma's function to Tokunoshima would partially fulfill Hatoyama's pledge to relocate the base out of the prefecture. It is undoubtedly the core measure to reduce Okinawa's burden of hosting U.S. bases, which he pledged to implement in his meeting with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima.
Unless there is some hope that Tokunoshima will accept partial relocation, it will adversely affect the national government's negotiations with the Okinawa Prefectural Government on Futenma relocation within the prefecture. At present, there is absolutely no prospect that Okinawa, where anti-base sentiment is rising, will accept the construction of a substitute facility for Futenma base in the prefecture. The situation is now deadlocked.
What is worse, the prime minister's indiscreet remarks on the issue have increased the public's distrust of the government.
In explaining the reason for abandoning fully moving Futenma base out of the prefecture, Hatoyama said he became "aware of the roles that the U.S. Marines in Okinawa play in ensuring military deterrence," after he learned of the situation.
If he insisted that the base be shifted out of Okinawa without sufficiently learning of the Marines' role as a part of Japan's defenses, it would call Hatoyama's qualifications to serve as prime minister and set security policy into question. It is also difficult to believe that it took him the entire seven months since he took power to learn about deterrence, as the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry have repeatedly underscored the important role that the Marines in Okinawa are playing in ensuring deterrence.
One cannot help but suspect that the prime minister cited military deterrence to justify his decision to relocate Futenma within Okinawa, as Washington has voiced stiff opposition to relocation out of the prefecture and his self-imposed deadline is drawing near without the prospect of finding a relocation site outside Okinawa.
If deterrence is the true reason for his policy shift, he cannot convince the public unless he explains specifically how he understands the role that the U.S. Marines in Okinawa are playing in ensuring deterrence.
Moreover, his claim that his call for "relocation out of the prefecture at least" is not part of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's election campaign pledges is unjustifiable. He apparently made the remarks to the effect that it was not incorporated in the party's manifesto for the general election in September last year. However, in the eyes of voters, a pledge made by the leader of a political party is a campaign pledge made by the party. The remarks that he made after announcing that he has abandoned relocation out of the prefecture sound like nothing but a bad excuse.
The prime minister is considering visiting Okinawa Prefecture again. However, his desperate requests for Okinawa and Tokunoshima, which came too late, and his indiscreet remarks have demonstrated that he has been cornered after wasting time and failing to work out a strategy for relocation.
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(Mainichi Japan) May 8, 2010