The United States agreed Friday to return to Japan air traffic control rights over Okinawa Island and its vicinity in about three years, the U.S. Forces in Japan said.

Under the agreement, reached at a meeting of the bilateral Joint Committee in Tokyo, Japan will regain the air traffic control rights for the first time since World War II. Okinawa was occupied by the United States after the war and returned to Japan in 1972.

Upon Okinawa's reversion, it was agreed that the U.S. military would "provisionally" handle air traffic control until the Japanese side completed its preparations.