thedrifter
05-13-09, 09:41 AM
MAY 12, 2009, 9:50 P.M. ET
Japan To Endorse US Marines' Transfer From Okinawa -Kyodo
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan will endorse an accord on Wednesday that commits it and the United States to following through on the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, Kyodo News reported.
Although the opposition-controlled House of Councillors voted it down in the morning, parliament is to officially endorse the bilateral accord by the day's end in line with the constitutional superiority of the House of Representatives, which has already given its approval.
After holding a joint conference of the two chambers, which is most likely to end without a compromise, Yohei Kono, speaker of the lower house, is expected to declare the pact's endorsement at the house's plenary session in the afternoon.
The Constitution allows treaties and their equivalents to be endorsed even if the upper house votes them down or they do not come to a vote within 30 days of their passage through the lower house.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties opposed the measure in Wednesday's vote, citing its vague cost breakdown and its ties to a controversial project to relocate a Marine airfield within Japan's southernmost island.
In mid-April, the lower house endorsed the agreement, signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February, with the backing of the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc.
The accord gives a legal basis to the 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, commonly referred to as the "road map," which Tokyo and Washington say is meant to reduce burdens on communities near U.S. bases.
It stipulates that 8,000 servicemen and women in the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and their 9,000 dependents will be moved from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, while legally obligating Tokyo to spend up to $2.8 billion on infrastructure projects on the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
The accord also ties the project in with the relocation of facilities at the Marines' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan to the shores of Nago on Okinawa, saying that the Guam transfer depends on progress made in the latter's relocation.
The planned transfer of the 8,000 Marines refers to a reduction in the current ceiling for Marine deployment in the prefecture from 18,000 to 10,000, not a reduction in the actual number of Marines stationed there by 8,000, government officials said during Diet deliberations on the legislation.
In a related move, the U.S. Department of Defense last week requested $378 million in budgetary spending for fiscal 2010 to push for the relocation of the Marines to Guam - the first such request the department has made to realize the specifics in the agreement.
Ellie
Japan To Endorse US Marines' Transfer From Okinawa -Kyodo
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--Japan will endorse an accord on Wednesday that commits it and the United States to following through on the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, Kyodo News reported.
Although the opposition-controlled House of Councillors voted it down in the morning, parliament is to officially endorse the bilateral accord by the day's end in line with the constitutional superiority of the House of Representatives, which has already given its approval.
After holding a joint conference of the two chambers, which is most likely to end without a compromise, Yohei Kono, speaker of the lower house, is expected to declare the pact's endorsement at the house's plenary session in the afternoon.
The Constitution allows treaties and their equivalents to be endorsed even if the upper house votes them down or they do not come to a vote within 30 days of their passage through the lower house.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties opposed the measure in Wednesday's vote, citing its vague cost breakdown and its ties to a controversial project to relocate a Marine airfield within Japan's southernmost island.
In mid-April, the lower house endorsed the agreement, signed by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February, with the backing of the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc.
The accord gives a legal basis to the 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, commonly referred to as the "road map," which Tokyo and Washington say is meant to reduce burdens on communities near U.S. bases.
It stipulates that 8,000 servicemen and women in the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and their 9,000 dependents will be moved from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, while legally obligating Tokyo to spend up to $2.8 billion on infrastructure projects on the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
The accord also ties the project in with the relocation of facilities at the Marines' Futemma Air Station in Ginowan to the shores of Nago on Okinawa, saying that the Guam transfer depends on progress made in the latter's relocation.
The planned transfer of the 8,000 Marines refers to a reduction in the current ceiling for Marine deployment in the prefecture from 18,000 to 10,000, not a reduction in the actual number of Marines stationed there by 8,000, government officials said during Diet deliberations on the legislation.
In a related move, the U.S. Department of Defense last week requested $378 million in budgetary spending for fiscal 2010 to push for the relocation of the Marines to Guam - the first such request the department has made to realize the specifics in the agreement.
Ellie