JAPAN'S PRIME minister Yukio Hatoyama completed a humiliating volte faceyesterday with his announcement that a controversial US base will have to remain on the country's southernmost prefecture Okinawa.
Mr Hatoyama, who had promised to shift the base off Okinawa, was immediately forced to sack a senior cabinet minister who opposed the government line.
Consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima had refused to sign off on a joint US-Japan agreement that pledges to move Futenma air station to an ecologically important offshore area near Nago city.
Ms Fukushima, who is leader of the government’s coalition partner the Social Democrats (SDP), last night called the plan “unworkable and infeasible”.
Mr Hatoyama promised before coming to office last September to recalibrate an arrangement that forces Okinawa to host 75 per cent of all US military facilities in Japan and more than 30,000 troops.
However yesterday’s deal returns Japan to the terms of a 2006 bilateral deal made by the previous government, which pledged to shift Futenma from crowded Ginowan city to the sea off the tiny fishing port of Heneko.
The government is attempting to soften the blow to Heneko by promising to assess the environmental and noise impact of an 1,800m offshore runway and move flight training to the mainland.
Many Okinawans have reacted furiously.
“Mr Hayotama thinks that he has ended this problem with this agreement, but he has only started it,” warned Makishi Yoshikazu, an anti-base activist. “Resistance has grown in the last few months and will grow further.”
Nago mayor Susumu Inamine, elected earlier this year on an anti-base ticket, called the plan “a betrayal” of the people of Okinawa. “It is totally unacceptable,” he said.
The Democrat (DPJ)-led government spent months searching for alternative sites for Futenma, igniting a series of protests before buckling under pressure from its US ally, which demanded that Tokyo honour the 2006 deal.
Mr Hatoyama now faces renewed opposition on Okinawa and the prospect of his fragile government disintegrating over the dispute, which has badly dented his approval ratings.
Ms Fukushima said earlier that her party may pull out of the coalition over the weekend, possibly torpedoing the fragile government. SDP members said last night they were debating whether to follow their leader out of the coalition.
Most analysts now expect the Democrats to take a severe drubbing in mid-term elections in July; some believe they may ditch Mr Hatoyama before campaigning begins.
Alluding to the crisis on the Korean peninsula, yesterday’s joint statement said: “The US- Japan alliance remains indispensable, not only to the defence of Japan, but also to the peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.”
The statement also acknowledged the “disproportionate burden” suffered by Okinawa, which shoulders the bulk of the US military alliance.
The “more equitable distribution of shared alliance responsibilities is essential for sustainable development of the alliance”, it said.