Japan, U.S. Can't Agree On Bases

Talks between Japan and the United States failed Thursday to resolve their disagreement over the relocation of a U.S. air base in Okinawa, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, and Japanese defense chief Yoshinori Ono negotiated for two days over the relocation of helicopter operations at the Futenma air base, which is at the center of Okinawan protests over the deeply unpopular U.S. military presence.

But the talks ended in a stalemate, the Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because ministry policy prohibits her from giving her name.

Most of the 50,000 U.S. military personnel based in Japan are stationed on the southern island state of Okinawa, which was occupied by the United States at the end of World War II and returned to Japan in 1972.

A new round of negotiations will resume at the end of the month, Kyodo News agency reported. The foreign ministry could not confirm this report.

Ono said earlier he hoped to reach an agreement by the end of October.

Tokyo and Washington agreed to move the Marine Corps Air Station, Futenma, from the crowded city of Ginowan to a less congested location following massive protests over the 1995 rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen.

Japan has suggested moving the helicopter functions to another U.S. base, Camp Schwab, after an earlier proposal to build a 1½-mile offshore island on a coral reef ran into opposition from protesters and environmentalists.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, in an interview for Thursday's editions of the national Yomiuri newspaper, reiterated Washington's opposition to moving Futenma's functions to Camp Schwab, a U.S. Marine base.

"I think our position for Camp Schwab is that it's just not going to work," Schieffer was quoted as saying. "All we'd do is transfer the problems we have in Futenma to someplace else."

The failed talks occurred amid growing calls in Japan for the U.S. to reduce its military presence in the country. Japan pays $5 billion a year in maintenance costs for U.S. bases here.

Okinawa is 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo.