Japan local election puts US troop move in focus

TOKYO, Nov 19 (Reuters) Voters in Okinawa went to the polls to elect a new governor today in a race closely watched for its possible impact on plans to reorganise and reduce the US military presence in Japan.

The election in the southern prefecture, host to about half of the 50,000 American troops in Japan, is also seen as a test of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's popularity and how his party will fare in an upper house election next year.

Japanese media have billed the vote as a tight race between Hirokazu Nakaima, a former electricity company head backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its coalition partner, and Keiko Itokazu, a former upper house lawmaker backed by several opposition parties.

The victor will replace the LDP-backed Keiichi Inamine, whose eight-year term ends on December 9.

A win by Itozaku would be an irritant in US-Japan security ties, given that she opposes a controversial plan to relocate a US air base within Okinawa, a prerequisite to an agreement between Tokyo and Washington on reshuffling American troops.

The deal to reorganise US troops in Japan, including a shift of 8,000 Marines by 2014 from Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam, was finally reached in May after talks stalled for years over relocation of the Marines' Futenma air base.

In 1996, Tokyo and Washington agreed to move helicopter activities at Futenma to a rural area, but Washington rejected Okinawa's demand that US military use of this new facility be limited to 15 years and the issue remained a sticking point in implementing the deal.

Recalling the fate of the 1996 agreement, some analysts say it remains to be seen whether the new deal struck in May, which includes a plan to move the entire air base from a crowded part of Okinawa to an area further north, can be implemented either.

Residents of the prefecture, a group of subtropical islands some 1,600 km south of Tokyo, feel they shoulder an unfair burden of the US presence and complain of crime, noise, pollution and accidents associated with the US bases.

Itokazu says the base should be moved out of Japan.

Prime Minister Abe, who is seeking to strengthen ties with Washington, is struggling with his domestic agenda despite scoring points with voters soon after taking office in September, both for holding summits with Chinese and South Korean leaders and for his tough response to North Korea's nuclear test.

An Asahi Shimbun poll last week showed public approval of his cabinet falling 10 points in the past month to 53 per cent.

Reuters SSC GC0949