Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura recently informed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the Sept. 11 general election will probably cause a delay in bilateral talks on realigning U.S. forces in Japan, a top Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
Machimura told Rice of the likely delay in a letter sent a couple of days after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the election on Aug. 8, the official said.
The government previously planned to disclose information about the ongoing talks to municipalities hosting U.S. bases and consult with them in late August or early September.
Subsequently, foreign affairs and defense chiefs from the two countries were to compile an interim report on the review of U.S. military role in Japan at the so-called two-plus-two meeting in September.
But the upcoming House of Representatives election is expected to keep the government from following the procedures as scheduled, Machimura said in the letter.