EDITORIAL: Kan's visit to Okinawa

The resignation of Yukio Hatoyama as prime minister did nothing to solve the dilemma over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture. All it did was push the issue back to square one.

Naoto Kan, Hatoyama's successor, is scheduled to visit Okinawa Prefecture on Wednesday to attend a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the end of the ferocious Battle of Okinawa.

Tokyo's relationship with Okinawa has been badly hurt by Hatoyama's failure to fulfill his promise to move the Futenma airfield "at least outside the prefecture." Kan must ensure that his visit will be the first step toward rebuilding the relationship.

In the final months of World War II, Okinawa was sacrificed for the defense of the Japanese mainland. More than 200,000 people, many of them Okinawans, perished. And even after Japan regained its independence in 1951, Okinawa remained under U.S. military administration for 20 more years.

Why are 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan concentrated in Okinawa? What has made Okinawans see Hatoyama's failure to keep his promise as grievous "discrimination against Okinawa"? These are questions that Kan says he is asking himself before anything else. We support his position.

Recovering Okinawa's trust in Tokyo will be a tough challenge. But unless this hurdle is overcome, the Kan administration will not be able to even begin the relocation process under the current Japan-U.S. agreement.

Shortly after he became prime minister, Kan announced his decision to abide by the Japan-U.S. agreement, which was reached by the Hatoyama administration, affirming the Henoko district in Nago, also in the prefecture, as the relocation site. The Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for the upcoming Upper House election also pledges to honor this agreement.

Tokyo's relationship with Washington remained strained under the Hatoyama administration. But it now appears the relationship is finally about to be put back on the right track.

But the mayor of Nago remains firmly opposed to the relocation, and Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima has told Kan that realizing the proposed relocation will be "extremely difficult." The Japan-U.S. agreement aims to complete studies on the location of the new facility's runway and the method of its construction by the end of August. But any decision reached without the understanding of local residents will only make the situation worse.

The Kan administration must not "force" the relocation to Henoko. This is absolutely vital. No matter how long it may take, the administration must patiently heed what Okinawans have to say and seek a solution that will be least objectionable to them.

Kan emphasizes his resolve to do whatever he can to lighten Okinawa's burden. But he obviously cannot win the trust of the local residents with words alone. He must act. For a start, he should negotiate with Washington on alleviating Okinawa's burden, whether it comes in the form of getting Washington to agree to transferring part of U.S. military training outside the prefecture or returning the offshore training sites to the prefecture.

Kan will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama during the Group of 20 summit in Toronto. For the sake of stable maintenance of the Japan-U.S. security framework, too, Kan ought to tell Obama candidly why it is absolutely necessary to alleviate Okinawa's burden.

Kan must not repeat his predecessor's folly of becoming the very cause of ineffectual summit diplomacy.

Meantime, all Japanese citizens ought to consider Okinawa's problem as their own and try to see how to reconcile the reality of the Japan-U.S. alliance with the cost it entails. People are beginning to debate these matters, and this must be kept up.

The Futenma relocation issue has cost the nation the collapse of the Hatoyama administration. It is vital that both the political community and the public at large continue to maintain a keen interest in the issue.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 22