Deadlock over the controversial relocation of a US military base in southern Japan deepened on Friday when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the anti-base governor of Okinawa.
The two men remained as far apart as ever after a 30-minute meeting that analysts said was largely Abe going through the motions of consultation ahead of a key trip to the United States.
Takeshi Onaga told reporters he asked Abe “to tell President (Barack) Obama that the governor of Okinawa and his people are clearly against” plans to build a new facility on the semi-tropical island’s coast in exchange for the shuttering of Futenma airbase.
The issue has queered relations between Tokyo and Okinawa, a once independent kingdom that was annexed by Japan in the 19th century, for nearly two decades, and is an irritant in ties with Washington. Okinawa is home to more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan as part of a defence alliance, a proportion many islanders say is too high.
Futenma, whose busy runway sits in the middle of a densely-populated city, has become emblematic of that ill-will since Washington announced plans to move it in 1996, in what the US hoped would ease tensions with the host community. Locals have blocked the move, insisting the facility should go off-island instead, and last year elected the vehemently anti-base Onaga, who is determined to block construction of the new base on the coast.