TOKYO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will likely fail to make good on a promise to resolve the row over the relocating of a U.S. Marine facility in Okinawa, despite reiterating he will not change his self-imposed May 31 deadline for settling the issue, as recently as Monday morning.
Government sources close to the matter said Monday that following a meeting earlier in the day with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and other officials, aimed at pinning down the crux of the relocation details concerning the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station located in Ginowan, Okinawa, Hatoyama has "given up" on his countless promises to resolve the issue with local residents and Washington by the end of May.
The Democratic Party of Japan-led government is honing in on a slight modification to an agreement made between Tokyo and Washington in 2006 under the former Liberal Democratic Party that would now see the majority of the Futemma functions moved to a new pile-supported facility to be built off the coast of the Marines' Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa city, rather than on land reclaimed from the sea as per the original deal.
Japan's central government is also planning to transfer some of the drills conducted at Futemma to Tokunoshima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, 200 kilometers northeast from Okinawa, as a way of decreasing the burden on Okinawa which hosts the bulk of the U.S. military facilities in Japan.
However, Hatoyama has faced staunch opposition from local politicians and residents from both islands, and Washington has stipulated that Japan's central government needs local support before a proposal on the base's relocation can be submitted.
Since the prime minister took office in September, following his campaign pledge to move the Futemma facility outside Okinawa and possibly Japan all together, there have been intensifying calls from Okinawan prefectural representatives and local islanders for Hatoyama to stick to his original promise.
On Monday a prominent national newspaper revealed that the approval rate for Hatoyama's Cabinet plunged 9 percent from the previous survey in April, to 24 percent and that 66 percent of those polled believed that the central government's latest relocation plans for Futemma are in direct contravention of Hatoyama's pre-election campaign promise made last year.
Whilst Hatoyama clearly reiterated on Monday that he has no intention of extending his self-imposed May 31 deadline prior to today's ministerial meeting, some of his Cabinet members said he should extend the deadline as Hatoyama will be under immense pressure to resign as prime minister if he fails to resolve the Futemma issue to the public's satisfaction by the end of this month.
Following the meeting, however, government sources said the premier has now backtracked on his promise saying he intends to focus on negotiating with the U.S. over the stalled issue.
The two governments are scheduled to hold the second round of working-level talks on the issue in Washington on Wednesday.
