Japan PM says no US base deal before Obama visit
Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday said he does not plan to make a decision on the relocation of a controversial US military base before President Barack Obama visits Tokyo next week.
Hatoyama's centre-left government, which took power in September, has promised to review a pact under which a new US base would be built on southern Okinawa island, while Washington has insisted Tokyo stick to the agreement.
The issue has clouded ties ahead of Obama's visit next Thursday and Friday.
"I don't intend to make a decision before President Obama's visit," Hatoyama told a parliamentary committee when asked about the row.
Washington and Tokyo have been close allies in the post-war era, and the United States has about 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on Okinawa, where their presence has often rankled local residents.
The premier has suggested that a contentious military facility, the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, currently located in a crowded urban area, may have to be moved off Okinawa altogether, or even out of Japan.
Hatoyama's government has stressed that, while it values the US-Japan security alliance, it wants less subservient relations than those under conservative governments that ruled Japan for over half a century.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said a review of the bases pact was necessary "after the first genuine change of government in Japan in 50 years," and that "we have to give consideration to the will of the people of Okinawa."
The premier has also said his government would end a naval refuelling mission now backing the NATO-led Afghanistan campaign when its mandate expires in January, but that Tokyo would instead boost its aid to the war-torn country.
When Obama visits next week, Hatoyama said, "I want to have active talks on issues such as Afghanistan. I'm convinced that his (Obama's) visit to Japan will surely be meaningful," he said in parliament.
"With limited financial resources, we have to examine what Japan can do for Afghanistan. And I hope that Japan's activities will be welcomed more by the Afghan people than the refuelling mission," Hatoyama said.
He said Japan would help "in the areas of agriculture... job training for fighters from insurgent groups, so that the fighters can make a living if they lay down their weapons, and training of police officers."
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, in an interview with the Yomiuri daily Friday, said he understood that officially pacifist Japan could not send combat troops but called on Tokyo to finance training for Afghan military and police. mis-kh/fz/dwa
