| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The Japanese and United States governments have decoupled plans to move US marines off Okinawa from the relocation of an airbase on the island. The US Department of State said in a statement: "The US has conducted a strategic review of its defence posture in Asia." It added that this would result in the US and Japan "delinking both the movement of marines to Guam and resulting land returns south of Kadena [on Okinawa Island] from progress on the Futenma Replacement Facility. We are also reviewing the unit composition and the number of marines who will relocate to Guam." The Futenma Replacement Facility refers to plans to close Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma, which is in the centre of Ginowan city, and transfer its operations to a new offshore runway at Camp Schwab in Nago, northern Okinawa. The 2006 United States-Japan Roadmap for Realignment Implementation document states that about "8,000 III Marine Expeditionary Force personnel and their approximately 9,000 dependants will relocate from Okinawa to Guam by 2014". Under leaked revised plans, 4,700 personnel and their dependants will move to Guam, with the rest dispersed around the Asia-Pacific region.
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