Tokyo urges Okinawa governor to back down in US base row

Fournis par AFP Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (L) meets with Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga (R) in Naha, Okinawa prefecture on April 5, 2015

Shinzo Abe's right-hand man on Sunday urged the governor of Okinawa to concede in a lingering row over the construction of a US air base ahead of the Japanese prime minister's visit to Washington later this month.

The base's construction, first mooted in 1996, has been stymied by local opposition from islanders who say they bear a disproportionate burden in hosting more than half of the 47,000 US service personnel stationed in Japan.

In the latest twist in the two-decade row, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told Governor Takeshi Onaga: "We hope to get your understanding on the plan... for maintaining the deterrent power of the Japan-US alliance."

However, the Okinawan governor countered that while he understood the importance of the alliance with the US, any national security plan must have the Japanese people's support.

"Okinawa never voluntarily offered (land) for bases. I'm convinced that it is impossible to construct a new base," Onaga said, referring to a plan to replace the urban Futenma Air Base with one on a rural coastline at Nago.

After the meeting, he told reporters: "I will never step back on the base issue," criticising the government's top-down approach.

Hundreds of anti-base protesters rallied outside the hotel in Okinawa's capital Naha where the talks took place, holding banners that read "rescind the relocation plan!"

The anti-base camp -- who want the base off Okinawa -- struck a blow late last month when Onaga said coral just outside the permitted zone at the site on the island's northeast coast had been damaged and demanded a halt to the work.

Fournis par AFP Servicemen of US Marine Corps salute while Japanese (R) and US flags are lowered at the evening colors ceremony at the Camp Foster near Futenma Base in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture, on November 14, 2014

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Tokyo urges Okinawa governor to back down in US base row