Japan and the United States have entered a final stage of negotiations over the stalled plan to relocate Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, as Tokyo has come up with an alternative plan, U.S. and Japanese sources said Saturday.
Japan recently gave up its "inland" proposal and proposed a compromise of using a coastal area in Camp Schwab where barracks now stand and land to be reclaimed in a seaweed-free part of the sea, the sources said.
At stake is the need to bridge gaps over the two sides' conflicting plans to move helicopter operations from the Futenma base, which is in the city of Ginowan, by building an offshore civilian-military airport with a 2,500-meter runway along the reef off Camp Schwab in the Henoko district of Nago.