Yukio Okamoto, an official adviser to Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Okinawa affairs, will resign from his post on Tuesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said Wednesday.
Muraoka told reporters that Okamoto had asked Hashimoto repeatedly over the past several months for permission to resign. "We think Okamoto has fulfilled his duties and we highly appreciate what he has done during his service, which started in November 1996," Muraoka told a regular news conference.
Visiting Okinawa Prefecture more than 30 times over the past 16 months, Okamoto has been involved in matters related to the government's plan to build a sea-based heliport off of Nago for use by the U.S. Marines Corps.
Originally, Hashimoto asked Okamoto to take the position for a year. However, his tenure was extended several times as the government faced difficulties in its relations with Okinawa, due to the sensitive and complicated nature of issues surrounding the island prefecture and its heavy concentration of U.S. military facilities.
Muraoka said that the government has no intention at the moment to appoint a successor. "As the minister in charge of Okinawa-related issues, I will do my best," Muraoka told reporters.
Okamoto, a former Foreign Ministry bureaucrat who once headed a key division in charge of U.S. relations, has served the Okinawa post on a volunteer basis. Okamoto is one of the first two official Hashimoto advisers whose post was created by a revision to the Cabinet Law. The other is Kiyoshi Mizuno, who is in charge of administrative reform, the prime minister's pet project.