Japan town agrees to relocate US base

Japanese officials in Okinawa yesterday approved the long-stalled relocation of a controversial US military base, a breakthrough that could remove a running sore in relations between Tokyo and Washington.
More than 17 years after the two allies agreed to move the US Marines' Futenma Air Station from a densely populated urban area, the local government has finally consented to a landfill that will enable new facilities to be built on the coast.
The agreement will burnish the credentials of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the US, possibly taking some of the sting out of American criticism of his provocative visit Thursday to a war shrine seen by China and Korea as a symbol of Japanese militarism.
The issue has been deadlocked for years, with huge opposition to any new base among Okinawans fed up with playing host to an outsized share of the US military presence in Japan, and who want it moved off the island altogether.
The deal gives the go-ahead for landfill near Camp Schwab on the east of the island, one of a number of large tracts of land the US military uses. Two runways will be built atop the landfill.