Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine called Saturday for national attention on Okinawa's wish to revise the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement.
"We want it to be considered a problem of Japan as a whole," Inamine said at a forum in Tokyo, stressing most of the land the U.S. military uses in Okinawa is expropriated private property.
Koichi Takemasa, a senior member of the Democratic Party of Japan, told the forum that Japan and the United States should step up efforts to revise the agreement, especially its provision on handing over U.S. servicemen suspected of committing crimes.
"Japan and the United States should say whatever they should to each other on an equal footing," he said.