Can you suggest a workable solution to the Futenma base relocation issue that might satisfy Okinawa, Tokyo and Washington?

Forge better alliances with Russia and China ..........

you say he US stole the Okinawa's land, do actually know that the owners of the land that the many military base sit on get paid... yearly. I work with a person that's in laws own most of the land that Camp Kinser is on. Trust me the land owners are NOT the ones that are complaining.... the MLCs (Japanese workers on bases) are NOT complaining... I really do believe that if we move away from Okinawa, it will be just like in the Philippians when we closed the base there.... many people lost their jobs, the area around the base turned to crap and the people that were complaining and saying "close the base" where now complaining how it worse it got after the base and people left. Do Okinawa's know about this? I'm not sure they do..

Start with any small, uninhabited island, then expand it using the same method that was used to build the Kansai airport. Does anyone have a mountain for sale?

Let the Okinawa people vote on the move and then abide by the decision. After all it is their home and what everyone else thinks is just a personal opinion.

I'm thinking relocate to Kansas. Maybe Texas.

so getting closer would just make it more efficient.

My point, exactly.

why bother? agreements have been made and broken.

I think Shikoku would be a good place. They could use the economic boost, there's plenty of space, few people, and an island that's hell of a lot bigger than Okinawa to be able to absorb the large number of servicemen. Also, there are medium sized cities in each prefecture that would make good R&R for the soldiers and their families.

Move the base to Tokyo.

Make a deal with North Korea. They have plenty of space they can rent to the US and they'd appreciate the money. In addition, I often heard the Oki base was necessary because of North-Korea, so getting closer would just make it more efficient.

Japan needs to sit down and relook at their security requirements, then re-write the SOFA (Status Of Forces Agreement) between Japan and the US reducing the current TOTAL minimum number of US troops stationed in Japan down from 47,000 (i believe that is the number) to a number low enough to ensure security but also allowing the closure of Futenma and it's personnel, aircraft, and mission, to be possible. As long as the minimum number of personnel in Japan is where it is now, Futenma (specifically it's mission) and it's personnel, will have to remain WITHIN Japan to meet the SOFA agreement. The other thing which needs to happen, which is already happening, is the US to reduce the military budget, thus making it too costly (which it already is) to keep open for the US as well.

Takeshima/Dokdo, let the Americans rule there then the disputes will end too. Another win-win situation.

Yeah. Send them all back to the US. Problem solved.

Paul Arenson

Complete agreement!

The US is obviously on some weird agenda.

NO BASES ANYWHERE IN JAPAN and building better relations with Japan's neighbours would make this country safer.

The question is the problem. Screw the US and Japanese govs. They violate the sovereignty of the Okinawan people so that Japan can support US wars and fabricate the illusion that the presence of the US military, which stole Okinawans' land, and the likely possession of nuclear weapons by the US here, make Japan a safer place. The reality is different, and that is why we won't make peace with N Korea. Because provocation of that country serves US Japan Gov interests.

But go to South Korea, where th memory of US supported dictatorship is still strong, where the memory of the Kwangju massacre is still fresh. There, people who have no love for N. Korea will tell you they think the US is more dangerous to the stability of the region, and many suspect the sinking of a S. Korean ship last year was an inside job to make it harder for a peace treaty to be signed.

Unfortunately, people in J outside Okinawa have no memory of a repressive regime, and so distrust of the state and the US is weaker outside Okinawa, though Fukushima may havevhelped to change people's awe of and respect for authority.

So yes, the solution is to send the military packing.