U.S., Japan reach deal on two ports

TOKYO — The United States and Japan have reached a basic agreement on relocating two U.S. military bases on the southern island of Okinawa, where the U.S. presence has frequently provoked protests, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Under the accord, the United States will return port facilities at the Naha Naval Port in Naha and the Makiminato Service Area in Urasoe to Japan, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing unidentified Japanese government sources.

The bases’ functions will be consolidated with those at Camp Courtney, also on Okinawa, the report said.

Japanese Foreign Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the Yomiuri report.

As a condition for handing over the two bases, the United States demanded a solution to a long-running dispute over relocating the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station to another site in Okinawa, the report said.

Talks over Futenma have bogged down a resolution of an overall realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. Washington has proposed moving a helicopter unit from Futenma to a landing strip that would be built offshore of Okinawa’s Camp Schwab, but Japan wants the runway constructed within Camp Schwab. Some Japanese have protested that an offshore airstrip could damage coral reefs.

Last week, the two countries failed to resolve disagreements over the relocation of Futenma during two days of talks between Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, and Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono.

The realignment is part of the Pentagon’s push to streamline its overseas bases and create a leaner, more flexible military. But the repositioning in Japan is also meant to ease tensions caused by the U.S. military presence.

Crimes linked to the U.S. military are a sensitive issue on Okinawa, where more than half of the nearly 50,000 American personnel in Japan are based. Three U.S. servicemen were convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl there in 1995, sparking huge protests.