Japan and the United States plan to hold senior working-level talks next Wednesday and Thursday in Washington on the realignment of the U.S. military presence in Japan, Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.
Senior foreign affairs and defense officials will exchange opinions on the details for implementing a realignment agreement reached in an interim report at a bilateral top security meeting on Oct. 29, the officials said.
The senior officials taking part in the talks include Kazuyoshi Umemoto, deputy director general of the Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Bureau; Chisato Yamauchi, deputy head of the Defense Agency's Defense Policy Bureau; and Richard Lawless, U.S. Defense deputy undersecretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs.
Tokyo and Washington aim to reach a final agreement on the realignment issue in March.
But many Japanese local governments, including the Okinawa Prefectural Government, which would be affected by the revision of military deployments, have sharply reacted to the report, citing a lack of advance consultation.
The October accord highlights the withdrawal of 7,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa and an alternative plan for relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station within the prefecture.
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