Japan stands up to US

Japan stands up to US

Wednesday, 28 October 2009 00:55
Varitey[sic] News Staff

JAPANESE leaders are standing up against pressures by the U.S. government to quickly proceed with the deal to move the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Base to a coastal area of Okinawa and transfer about 8,000 troops to Guam.

“I don't think we will act simply by accepting what the U.S. tells us, just because the U.S. is saying this, in such a short period of time,” international wire agencies quoted Japan’s Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada as saying.

Okada made those remarks after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed Japanese leaders by insisting that Japan and the U.S. had negotiated this issue for as many as 13 years.

“But I told him that we, as an opposition party, had opposed the plan for those years,” Okada told Tokyo Broadcasting System Television. Okada said, “The will of the people of Okinawa and the will of the people of Japan was expressed in the elections.”

The transfer of the 8,000 Marines to Guam is causing many frustrations among the people and the government of Guam. It is mostly attributed to the lack of information.