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Japan PM scraps US base move plan Japan PM scraps US base move plan
(20 minutes later)
Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said it will not be feasible to entirely remove a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa.Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said it will not be feasible to entirely remove a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa.
The US Marines' Futenma base is deeply unpopular with many residents and removing it had been a key election pledge of the prime minister. The US Marines' Futenma is deeply unpopular with Japanese and removing it had been a key election pledge of Mr Hatoyama's.
But on a visit to the island, Mr Hatoyama said "realistically speaking, it is impossible" to fully relocate it.But on a visit to the island, Mr Hatoyama said "realistically speaking, it is impossible" to fully relocate it.
The island is home to over half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan. The base is home to more than half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.
Mr Hatoyama, speaking on his first visit to Okinawa since becoming prime minister, said maintaining the base in some form was needed for national security, under Japan's post-war military alliance with the US. "I really feel sorry as I visit here today that I must ask for the Okinawan people's understanding that part of the base operations would have to stay," the AFP news agency quoted Mr Hatoyama as saying.
"I really feel sorry as I visit here today that I must ask for the Okinawan people's understanding that part of the base operations would have to stay," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying. Mr Hatoyama, who had promised to resolve the issue by the end of May, was speaking on his first visit to Okinawa since becoming prime minister.
He appealed to the people of Okinawa to "share the burden" of the base. "We must ask the people of Okinawa to share the burden," he said.
Mr Hatoyama had promised to resolve the issue by the end of May. The row over the base has undermined relations between Japan's centre-left government and the US.
Protests
Japan and the US agreed a deal in 2006 to reduce the US troop presence in Okinawa.
The two had agreed to relocate the Futenma base to a less populated part of the island, but Mr Hatoyama had favoured moving the base off Okinawa entirely.
Japanese media reports suggested he now intends to follow the 2006 plan, under which troops move to an area off the coast of Camp Schwab in Nago, in the north of the island.
The row over Futenma has undermined support for Japan's centre-left government and damaged its ties with the US.
Last month, nearly 100,000 people staged a protest on the southern island, demanding that the base be removed.
Islanders have been angered by incidents involving US troops based there, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by three US servicemen.
Other complaints have focused on noise levels and objections to the US military use of Japanese land.
Analysts say Mr Hatoyama's handling of the issue could be critical ahead of elections for Japan's upper house of parliament in July.