By Hui Xiaoshuang     

    TOKYO, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- As Japan is moving toward a closer military cooperation with the United States in the process of its defense policy update, Tokyo, however, is asking Washington to reduce its military presence in the southern prefecture of Okinawato ease local burden and appease complaints.

    Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that he would seek relocating US bases in Okinawa.

    "I want to consider both a relocation abroad and a relocation to mainland Japan," the premier told Japanese reporters traveling with him in Hanoi, Vietnam to attend the Asia-Europe summit.

    Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a press conference Wednesday that Japan had proposed to the US side to remove some US forces out of Okinawa.

    "The proposals include that some units are unnecessary in the first place," he said without elaboration.

    The leading Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday that Japan initiated at a September meeting in Washington that the United States remove 2,000 to 3,000 marines out of Japan.

    The paper said that as the United States is capable of transferring marines swiftly from its homeland to Japan in emergencies, the Japanese government deems the necessity of keeping them in Okinawa as dwindling.

    Okinawa has been accommodating the bulk of US military forces. The United States currently has around 40,000 troops in Japan, including marine, air and navy forces.

    The people in Okinawa keep complaining about and protest against all kinds of troubles and offenses brought about by US troops, ranging from noises of war planes to rape cases.

    The growing outcry has put the Japanese government in a dilemma.

    Japan regards the US military presence as a tough protection and intends to intensify the partnership. The deeper involvement in US operations worldwide would also help Japan's ambition to wina larger stage for its own defense forces.

    An advisory report submitted to Koizumi on Monday by a defense panel called for updating current bilateral defense cooperation guidelines.

    "The chances of Japan-US cooperation are expected to increase in the area of international peace cooperation," it said.

    On the other hand, in face of mounting demands from local governments and people in Okinawa to remove the bases, the Japanese government has stepped up contact with the United States on the issue.

    At a summit meeting on Sept. 21 in New York, Koizumi and US President George W. Bush agreed that the US military will make efforts to reduce the burden shouldered by Okinawa and other communities hosting the bases in the course of realigning US troops in Japan.

    The agreement came out after Bush had made clear a realignment intention regarding US military in the world. It also was precededwith a 30,000 people demonstration in Okinawa following a US helicopter crashed into a campus on August 13.

    In an agreement signed in 1996, the United States agreed to return gradually some 21 percent of all land used by US bases on Okinawa by 2008

    The process is going hard, partly due to where to put the removed troops. The Japanese government now wants to remove them to other part of Japan or abroad.

    However, few local governments would like to accept US troops. Koizumi said Wednesday that "the easing of Okinawa's burden will not be resolved...if other areas do not want to accommodate" the US forces.

    Apart from dispute on the Okinawa issue, the United States also reportedly proposed to relocate US Army's 1st Corps command from the state of Washington to Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture, but Japan declined the initiative. Enditem¡¡