**Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said it will not be feasible to entirely remove a controversial US base from the island of Okinawa.**The US Marines’ Futenma base is deeply unpopular with Japanese and removing it had been a key election pledge of the prime minister.
But on a visit to the island, Mr Hatoyama said “realistically speaking, it is impossible” to fully relocate it.
The base is home to more than half the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.
“I really feel sorry as I visit here today that I must ask for the Okinawan people’s understanding that part of the base operations would have to stay,” the AFP news agency quoted Mr Hatoyama as saying.
He said maintaining the base in some form was needed for national security, under Japan’s post-war military alliance with the US.
Protests
Mr Hatoyama, who had promised to resolve the issue by the end of May, was speaking on his first visit to Okinawa since becoming prime minister.
He appealed to the people of Okinawa to accept a compromise agreement and to “share the burden” of the base.
Japan and the US agreed a deal in 2006 to reduce US troop presence in Okinawa and move personnel away from built-up areas, but Mr Hatoyama had favoured removing troops completely.
The row over Futenma has undermined support for Japan’s centre-left government and damaged its ties with the US.
Last month, nearly 100,000 people staged a protest on the southern island, demanding that the base be removed.
Islanders have been angered by incidents involving US troops based there, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl by three US servicemen.
Other complaints have focused on noise levels and objections to the US military use of Japanese land.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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