Posted on 05/15/2010 5:53:22 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will postpone a deadline for resolving a row over relocating a U.S. base by up to half a year to November, abandoning Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's original end-May target, the daily Sankei Shimbun said Saturday.
The decision will be conveyed to the U.S. side as early as next week, the paper said, while Kyodo news agency reported diplomatic sources saying U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would visit Japan on May 21 to discuss the base issue.
"In order to get the understanding of as many people as possible, we will keep seeking their cooperation even after the end of May," Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, who also holds the portfolio for Okinawa, said on NHK television.
Public perceptions Hatoyama has mishandled the issue over a U.S. Marine base on the southern Japan island of Okinawa have eroded his popularity ahead of an upper house election, with a recent Jiji news agency poll showing support for his government had fallen below 20 percent for the first time.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party needs a decisive win in the upper house vote expected in July to enact laws smoothly as Japan struggles to keep a recovery on track while reining in massive public debt.
The heavy concentration of U.S. military bases and 47,000 troops on Okinawa is a legacy of the U.S. occupation of the island, the site of a bloody World War Two battle, from 1945 to 1972. Saturday marked the 38th anniversary of Okinawa's reversion to Japanese sovereignty.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Futemna .. spent a year at beautiful MCASH Futemna in the early 70s..
Best damn Kobe Beef I ever et was at the Ft. Machinado steak house.. just down the hill and towards Naha. dang fine Mai Tais too.
Semper Fi
If they don’t want us why are we staying??? We’re already bleeding enough money. Let’s go!
I suppose it’s sort of like people who don’t particularly like cops. However, for the moment, there are prowlers in the neighborhood and the people want the police to stay a little longer.
Your comment is right on the money. Let’s take all our bases, close them, and then come home. I would take the money we spend on overseas bases and put it into long range bombers, aircraft carriers and a new president. Oh and no more foreign aid.
Enterprise, these folks now have a capable military force to hold out until we can get there. They have a navy, an army, and an air force. They don’t brag about them but they’ve got them. P.S. Great tag line.
Had many many layovers and TDY at Kadena AB back in the 60’s.
Thank you.
Spent 18 months at the Army base on Hokkaido.....where they have 9 months of winter and 3 months of bad weather each year. Then I got shipped south with 4 other GIs to operate an Army outstation on Kami Seya Navy Base near Yokohama. Spent 20 beautiful months there. Dem was da’ good old days!
“I suppose it’s sort of like people who don’t particularly like cops.”
Maybe so Enterprise but we pay for our own police force. The Japanese don’t pay taxes to the USA. The money can be spent elsewhere or better yet not spent at all.
time to get out
The strategic reason for the United States to have military bases in Japan is as valid as having military bases in Europe and the Middle East, regardless of who “pays.” If in the next few years, we don’t have any more bases in those areas, it won’t be because we are suddenly safer.
Think having the growing Chinese navy sailing past the islands have made them rethink the “USA SUCKS” slogans?
South Korea seems to have a similar sudden turn about in their anti-American sentiments.
The world is a dangerous place and suddenly they are realizing it.
It’ll matter who “pays” when we have our Greek moment. Our legions will have to hitch a ride home.
It's a troubling thought isn't it? Until Obama came to office, I hadn't thought such a thing could happen. Now I don't know.
When it comes to deficit spending Obama is just Bush on steroids. He’s the latest and most severe manifestation of the problem but he has plenty of company on both sides of the aisle.
The Democrats are like the guy in the neighborhood that beats his wife.
The Republicans are like the guy in the neighborhood who beats his wife but he tells her he loves her before he does it.
Either way the wife ends up with a black eye and we end up with bigger deficits.
Hopefully the GOP will walk the walk and not just talk the talk but seeing is believing.
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