Japanese/ US Base realignment that is.
U.S. Marines in Japan to be slashed by half
WASHINGTON
— Japan and the United States have agreed to reduce the number of U.S. Marine Corps troops in Okinawa Prefecture by about a half, visiting Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told reporters Friday evening. As part of the ongoing efforts to reduce and integrate U.S. forces in Japan’s southernmost prefecture, Tokyo and Washington agreed to shift some 7,000 of about 15,000 Marines to U.S.bases in Guam and other locations, Ono said in Washington. “We demanded that Okinawa’s burden of hosting U.S. bases be reduced in a tangible way, and the two sides have recently agreed to reduce Marines by 7,000,” he said.The accord is set to be incorporated in an interim report to be released at a Japan-U.S. security meeting to be attended by foreign and defense ministers of both countries this weekend. The 7,000 Marines set to be transferred are mostly office personnel and supply officials. Okinawa, which accounts for less than 1 percent of Japan’s national land, is home to 75 percent of U.S. bases in Japan in terms of land area. (Mainichi)
Click here for the original Japanese story
October 29, 2005
Statement by the Defense Minister or no, I’ll believe this when I see it. Then again stranger things have happened. Anybody out there remember this little rogue nation called N. Korea? I guess not………
Read the entire statement here. As I had suspected would happen, they have taken a great deal and just totally hosed it up…….
