Subscribe RSSTOKYO — Important Japanese newspapers reported Thursday that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has decided to reverse himself and brook nearly all of Washington’s demands that he honor an existing agreement to relocate an American air base on Okinawa, in an assault to end a damaging dispute that had sown confusion and mistrust between the longtime allies.
According to the reports, Mr. Hatoyama will before long announce a new plan that will largely adhere to a 2006 agreement to move the busy base, Marine Corps Air Place Futenma , to a less populated part of Okinawa — rather than move it off the island entirely, as he had pledged during last summer’s campaign. The reports said that the biggest departure from the early previously to accord would be a vague call to move some Marine training exercises off Okinawa, in what appears to be a largely symbolic gesture to alleviate the island’s military burden.
The reports did not identify the source, but their similarity and simultaneous appearance in most greater newspapers seemed to indicate that the information was leaked by government officials, as is common here. The prime minister’s department would not comment, and Mr. Hatoyama would tell reporters only that he was “in the final stages” of putting together a plan, which he had promised to tell by the end of the month.
