Japan agrees to accept Okinawa base

TOKYO, May 23 (UPI) -- Japan said it would honor a 14-year-old agreement allowing the United States to move a Marine Corps air base within Okinawa, as long sought by U.S. officials.

The Washington Post reported U.S. officials and analysts cited security threats to Japan to help persuade Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to break a key campaign promise -- to move the Futenma air base off Okinawa.

Hatoyama, who announced the decision Sunday, apologized to Okinawa residents when he announced he was accepting the main elements of the deal worked out between Japan and the United States in 1996.

"The relocation of Futenma will have to stay in Okinawa," Hatoyama said in a meeting with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima. "I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the confusion that I have caused the people of Okinawa in not being able to keep my promise."

He said the base would be moved from Futenma to the less-populated coastal district of Henoko on Okinawa, in keeping with a 4-year-old plan.

The Post noted the decision comes amid increasing tensions between Japan and China and on the Korean peninsula since a report by South Korea blamed North Korea for torpedoing of a South Korean warship March 26.

"There was a realization that this is still a very dangerous neighborhood and that the U.S.-Japan alliance and the basing arrangements that are part of that are critical to Japan's security," a U.S. official told the newspaper.

Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan took power in August, becoming just the second opposition party to win a national election in Japan in 50 years.