Japan Clears Way for Okinawa Lease Renewals

The Japanese parliament cleared the way Thursday to legally force reluctant landlords on the southern island of Okinawa to continue leasing their land for U.S. military facilities.

The controversial action to allow the central government to override private ownership rights and the will of local authorities was taken in the name of “national interest.” It resolves a major bilateral security issue in time for Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto’s visit to the United States next week.

Leases on 3,000 plots of land were set to expire in May, throwing in jeopardy the continued operation of runways and other key U.S. military facilities in Okinawa. Okinawa hosts 75% of U.S. military facilities in Japan, which comprise America’s most important bases in Asia not only for regional security needs but also for worldwide military operations, such as those undertaken during the Persian Gulf War.

“Japan has done its best to strengthen the credibility of the bilateral security treaty. So we want the United States to do its part by cooperating with us,” Hashimoto said, hinting that he may ask for additional measures to reduce the burden of hosting the U.S. bases.

In February, Hashimoto indicated to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that he would like to begin discussions about U.S. troop levels in Japan--the first time a Japanese prime minister has officially questioned the deployments. U.S. officials, however, have rejected such discussions, and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen recently announced that the United States would maintain its 100,000 troops in Asia even after tensions on the Korean peninsula settle down.

Okinawa Gov. Masahide Ota, in Washington to ask for troop reductions, said passage of the law left him “speechless.” In Tokyo, 21 activists were arrested for disrupting parliamentary proceedings and 200 protesters staged a sit-in in front of the parliament building. But the level of emotional outrage over the U.S. presence has cooled considerably since 1995, when three U.S. servicemen were involved in the kidnapping, beating and rape of an Okinawan schoolgirl.

About 80% of Japan’s House of Councillors approved the measure Thursday in a rare alliance between bitter rivals in the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Frontier Party. Only the Communists and the Social Democratic Party opposed the bill, fueling some fears that the nation’s liberal opposition has been virtually extinguished and that an all-conservative political bloc could form.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiroku Kajiyama has called such fears “nonsense.” But his conservative ally, former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, recently said that cooperation between competing parties based on policy was likely to increase in the future.

The Japanese media have been filled with speculation about a “conservative-conservative alliance” that could eventually result in a realignment of the political world, which is currently splintered along personality and power politics more than policy.