With U.S. officials pressing Japan to make major progress on the long-stalled relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his new defense minister will have their work cut out getting locals to accept the move.
Most Okinawans want the base gone from the prefecture and have long opposed the government's plan. Changing their minds over the coming weeks and months may well depend on a separate — but closely related — series of negotiations on the central government's new 10-year plan for Okinawa's economic development.
The Okinawa Prefectural Government and Noda's administration have been locked in intense negotiations for the past six months, trying to hammer out a new long-term strategy.