U.S. open to environmental pact for bases

WASHINGTON — The United States is ready to discuss the possibility of forming a special bilateral pact with Japan to address environmental damage at U.S. military bases in Japan, the governor of Kanagawa Prefecture said Friday.

The offer emerged when Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa and Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima held separate talks with senior U.S. Defense and State Department officials, Matsuzawa said at a joint news conference with Nakaima in Washington.

Matsuzawa said the pact would be the first step in the new Democratic Party of Japan-led administration's goal of revising the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement, which governs U.S. military operations in Japan and legal arrangements for its personnel.

"We have won a full understanding that our proposed special environmental pact will contribute to strengthening the foundation of the Japan-U.S. alliance," he said.

The bilateral pact, more commonly known as SOFA, gives virtual extraterritorial rights to U.S. personnel, and there are growing calls to revise it to ensure suspects in criminal cases get handed over to Japanese police.

The United States has long been reluctant to revise the SOFA. Crimes committed by U.S. personnel can better be treated by making better use of the current agreement, it has said.

The proposed special environmental pact is aimed at allowing Japanese authorities to conduct effective on-site inspections at U.S. bases and to establish procedures for preventing and eliminating pollution. More information will be disclosed to ease the anxiety of local residents.

In a meeting with both governors, Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, was quoted as saying the United States wants to discuss environmental issues arising from its military presence.

Gregson also singled out the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee as a forum for taking up such matters because it specifically deals with SOFA-related issues.

In a separate meeting with the governors, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joseph Donovan said the United States wants its military personnel in Japan to be good neighbors and is willing to look into the proposed pact to improve its response to environmental issues.

Matsuzawa said he and Nakaima understand that Japan and the United States will "promptly" launch formal talks on the pact, since both governments look favorably upon it.

The two governors are visiting the United States as chairman and vice chairman of a group of governors representing prefectures that host military facilities.

On the thorny issue of relocating U.S. Marine Corp Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, Nakaima repeated that he is willing to keep it in his prefecture as stated in the existing Japan-U.S. agreement.

"I think it best to move it out of the prefecture. But in light of the . . . history (of addressing the issue), it cannot be helped to accept its relocation within the prefecture," he said.

Complaining about the conflicting views expressed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Cabinet, Nakaima said he wants the central government to come up with a unified stance "as soon as possible."