Staff writer

With ties between the central government and Okinawa improving under Gov. Keiichi Inamine, Okinawan municipalities have openly begun to use "base-for-money" tactics that are making Tokyo officials smile.

In a telephone interview with The Japan Times, Katsuhiro Yoshida, mayor of the central Okinawan town of Kin, said he will formally announce as early as this weekend his decision to accept the relocation of the U.S. Navy's Sobe Communications Site into Camp Hansen in his town -- a decision made in 1996 by Tokyo and Washington but never given local backing.