JAPANESE PRIME minister Yukio Hatoyama risked political suicide yesterday when he told the residents of Okinawa they will have to compromise on the relocation of a contentious US marine base.
Mr Hatoyama (63) said it was not "feasible" to shift Futenma Air Station outside of Japan's southernmost prefecture, reversing a pledge to reduce the burden of hosting US bases on locals there.
The Futenma issue has overshadowed the prime minister's eight-month term in office and badly corroded his Democratic Party's support ahead of a general election in the summer.
On his first visit to Okinawa since taking office, Mr Hatoyama apologised for causing "confusion and concern" over where to put the base after meeting prefectural governor Hirokazu Nakaima.
"Realistically speaking, it is impossible to move the base out of the prefecture. We must ask the people of Okinawa to share the burden," he said, before admitting he still had not decided on a location.
Mr Hatoyama's first clear statement that he will not be able to keep a promise to shift the base off the main island was greeted with fury yesterday. "He has let us down and we won't forgive him for it," a resident of Ginowan city told state broadcaster NHK.
Okinawa hosts about 75 per cent of all US facilities and roughly half the 47,000 US troops in Japan. Residents there have long complained at being forced to shoulder the bulk of the US-Japan military alliance. Futenma's noisy helicopters and jets, which fly constantly over crowded Ginowan, is the island's key flashpoint.
After taking office last September Mr Hatoyama backpeddled on a 2006 agreement with Washington, made by the previous government, that would have moved Futenma to a purpose-built offshore base near Nago, in the north of Okinawa. Washington reacted to that decision with months of diplomatic pressure that badly dented US-Japan ties.
In an effort to find a solution to what has become one of its most stubborn problems, the government has been casting around for possible hosts elsewhere in the prefecture, with little success.
A plan floated last month to shift Futenma's noisy flight training exercises to tiny Tokunoshima sparked the largest demonstration in the island's history on April 18th. A week later on April 26th, about 90,000 people came out to protest against a plan to locate the base off Nago.
Government sources say Mr Hatoyama's statement is a sign he now intends to sign off on the 2006 deal, meaning he must face down fierce resistance in Nago.
Polls in the city show opposition to the base running at well over 70 per cent.
In January, Nago voters elected the virulently anti-base Susumu Inamine as mayor. Mr Inamine told the April 26th rally that he would "never compromise" by allowing the base to come to his city, and criticised the government for what he called its "contradictory" policies.
"Such an erratic and unscrupulous manner ridicules Okinawans and we can never forgive that," he added.