Japan, U.S. Agree to Return Portion of Futenma Base in FY 2017

Tokyo (PNA/Kyodo) — Japan and the United States announced an agreement Friday on returning some land at a key U.S. base in Okinawa ahead of schedule in fiscal 2017, as part of efforts to ease the southern island prefecture’s burden of hosting U.S. military installations.

The accelerated schedule for returning land or facilities in Okinawa used by the U.S. military follows requests by local governments and communities for their early return. Through the move, the Japanese government apparently hopes to gain local consent for a controversial plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

Under the new deal, the two countries said they would “accelerate work on the return of lands along the eastern side of” Futenma base encompassing approximately 4 hectares in fiscal 2017 ending March 2018. (PNA/Kyodo) RMA/RSM