Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga have been visiting communities with military bases to gain their approval of an interim report on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, but strong local opposition persists.
"The Japan-U.S. security setup might be shaken unless Okinawa is level-headed. I feel a sense of considerable incongruity to the interim report," Okinawa Gov. Keiichi Inamine told Aso, who visited the prefecture Friday for the first time since he assumed the post Oct. 31.
Inamine thus reiterated his opposition to plans to relocate the helicopter operations of the U.S. Futenma Air Station in Ginowan to the coastal area at the U.S. Marine Corps Camp Schwab in Nago envisaged in the interim report.
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