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Updated at: 0102 PST, Sunday, April 25, 2010
YOMITAN: Protesters on the Japanese island of Okinawa are planning a mass rally Sunday against a US airbase in a row that is dominating national politics and souring ties with Washington.
Up to 100,000 demonstrators, including Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima and more than 30 town mayors, are expected at the event in Yomitan, near Kadena Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Asia-Pacific region.
Many on the subtropical island chafe at the heavy American military presence, a legacy of Japan's World War II defeat to the United States, complaining of noise, pollution and frictions with US soldiers.
The issue has come to threaten the political future of centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has been pressured by both Washington and his left-leaning political allies to find a solution to the emotional dispute.
The row centres on the locally unpopular US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which under a 2006 pact with Washington was to be moved from the crowded city of Ginowan to the quieter coastal Henoko area of Okinawa.
Hatoyama, after taking power in September in a landslide election, said the base may be moved off the island instead. But a search for alternative locations has met with more local protests.
The prime minister has set himself a deadline of late May to resolve the issue, while the United States maintains it wants Tokyo to stick with the original plan.
Source: Japanese island set for mass rally against US bases - GEO.tv
YOMITAN: Protesters on the Japanese island of Okinawa are planning a mass rally Sunday against a US airbase in a row that is dominating national politics and souring ties with Washington.
Up to 100,000 demonstrators, including Okinawa governor Hirokazu Nakaima and more than 30 town mayors, are expected at the event in Yomitan, near Kadena Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Asia-Pacific region.
Many on the subtropical island chafe at the heavy American military presence, a legacy of Japan's World War II defeat to the United States, complaining of noise, pollution and frictions with US soldiers.
The issue has come to threaten the political future of centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has been pressured by both Washington and his left-leaning political allies to find a solution to the emotional dispute.
The row centres on the locally unpopular US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, which under a 2006 pact with Washington was to be moved from the crowded city of Ginowan to the quieter coastal Henoko area of Okinawa.
Hatoyama, after taking power in September in a landslide election, said the base may be moved off the island instead. But a search for alternative locations has met with more local protests.
The prime minister has set himself a deadline of late May to resolve the issue, while the United States maintains it wants Tokyo to stick with the original plan.
Source: Japanese island set for mass rally against US bases - GEO.tv
