90,000 Japanese protest U.S. military base plans in Okinawa

"We will not allow the base to stay here," Okinawa Gov.

Hirokazu Nakaima told the cheering crowd. "We want the Hatoyama government to keep its promise." Tokyo and Washington agreed in 2006 to move sprawling Futenma Marine Corps air field to a less crowded part of Okinawa and to move 8,000 of its Marines to Guam.

The agreement has been frozen, and Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has repeatedly delayed a decision in the face of rejection by potential relocation sites. Okinawa residents have long protested their burden of hosting most of 47,000 American troops in Japan under a security pact.

About 90,000 people from across the island gathered in the town of Yomitan, carrying banners and placards with anti-US military slogans and demanding Hatoyama keep his promise and move the Futenma base outside the island.

The protesters were particularly upset as media reports said earlier Sunday that Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada had told US Ambassador John Roos last week that Tokyo was moving to roughly accept the 2006 deal, with slight change to a runway planned off the northeastern coast of Nago, Kazinform refers to the Arab News.

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