In a joint statement Friday, the foreign and defense ministers of Japan and the United States declared that the replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, will be relocated to the Henoko area of Camp Schwab and adjacent waters in Nago, the northern part of Okinawa Island. It also mentioned bilateral efforts to move more U.S. military training drills to areas such as Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, Guam, and Japanese Self-Defense Forces' bases on mainland Japan. The Cabinet later confirmed the statement and adopted its policy on the relocation of Futenma.
These developments quashed Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's wish to move Futenma's functions out of Okinawa to reduce Okinawans' burden of hosting U.S. bases. The basic 2006 bilateral accord on Futenma's relocation was kept intact.
Despite his good intentions, Mr. Hatoyama failed to properly lead the members of his Cabinet, as well as the bureaucracy, to a consensus on relocation. Some Cabinet members complicated his efforts by making careless statements that also caused confusion. The dismissal of consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima, Social Democratic Party leader, who opposed the Cabinet decision, underscored the difficulty of the issue, which Mr. Hatoyama himself did not seem to understand.