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October 19, 2005

Japan, U.S. discuss reduced military presence at Okinawa

Associated Press

TOKYO — Japan and the United States are discussing reducing the number of Marines and aircraft flights at bases on Japan’s southern Okinawa island amid tensions caused by the U.S. military’s presence, media reports said Wednesday.

The talks are focusing on moving some F-15 flight exercises from Kadena Air Base on Okinawa to Japan’s southernmost main island of Kyushu and shifting hundreds of Marines at Okinawa’s Camp Courtney to Guam, the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported.

Tokyo and Washington have been discussing realignment of U.S. military bases, and Japan’s defense chief Yoshinori Ono has said he wanted to reach an agreement by the end of October.

The realignment is part of the Pentagon’s push to streamline its overseas bases and create a more flexible military while Japan has been pressing Washington to reduce the U.S. military’s presence on Okinawa.

Crimes linked to the U.S. military are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where more than half of the nearly 50,000 American troops in Japan are based. Three U.S. servicemen were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl there in 1995, sparking massive protests.

Meanwhile, training of Japanese defense forces may also be moved to the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Hansen on Okinawa, Kyodo News agency reported.

Defense Agency officials refused to comment on the reports.

The two countries failed to resolve disagreements over a relocating Futenma Air Station on Okinawa in two-day talks last week.

Okinawa is about 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.