By Miya Tanaka
     Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada may have eyed a breakthrough on the thorny issue of where to relocate a U.S. military airfield in Okinawa when he revived in late October a previously dismissed idea of merging it with the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base.
     But consolidating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station with Kadena is apparently not gaining traction as a mainstream opinion given strong local resistance that was highlighted during Okada's two-day visit to Okinawa which ended Monday.
     ''I wouldn't say that there's no possibility at all, but we don't know whether it would take 10 years or 20 years to put the plan together. It's that difficult,'' Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima told reporters after holding talks with Okada on Sunday.
     At a press conference Monday, Okada said little when asked by a reporter about ''the fruits'' of his first visit to the southernmost prefecture since assuming his post in September.
     ''There was a limited amount of time, but I was able to hear from the heads of the local governments concerned and was able to understand the reality more,'' Okada said, without elaborating.
     The Futemma relocation issue is weighing heavily on the new Japanese government, which is caught between U.S. pressure to swiftly abide by a bilaterally agreed relocation plan for the facility and the Democratic Party of Japan's stance on the issue before it came to power.
     Under a 2006 Japan-U.S. accord that took years to reach, the heliport functions of the Futemma Air Station in a downtown residential area of Ginowan are set to move to a less densely populated area in Nago in northern Okinawa by 2014. The plan involves the construction of two runways in a V shape in the coastal area of the U.S. Marines' Camp Schwab.
     Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who doubles as DPJ leader, insisted before taking office that he would seek to move the Futemma facility in central Okinawa outside of the prefecture, or even outside of Japan, to ease the burden of hosting bases on local residents.
     But Hatoyama has recently appeared evasive on the issue and Okada said about a month after the launch of the government that he personally believes moving the Futemma facility outside of Okinawa is impossible, referring to the merger of Futemma and Kadena as an option that needs to be studied.
     Okada said Monday that it is still ''too early'' to talk about how he views the feasibility of a merger, while indicating a day earlier that the prospects are not bright.
     ''The Kadena plan has an advantage in that it would take less time (for the Futemma relocation than the existing plan) because the base already has runways. But the people in Okinawa, especially those close to the base are strongly opposed to it,'' he said.
     ''I have to walk on an extremely narrow path,'' he added.
     Kadena Mayor Tokujitsu Miyagi, who has worked in the past to prevent Futemma from being relocated to Kadena, the largest U.S. air base in East Asia, also bluntly turned down the possibility of a merger during talks with Okada on Monday, even though Okada said ensuring noise reduction would be a prerequisite for the merger.
     The Kadena Air Base has emerged from time to time as a possible site for the consolidation of the heliport functions of Futemma since Japan and the United States reached an accord in 1996 to return the land in Ginowan occupied by the airfield. But the idea was dismissed after the U.S. military pointed to possible operational difficulties and protests by local residents who were concerned that the merger would worsen noise pollution.
     Reflecting Okada's awkward position on Okinawa, which was hoping the DPJ-led government would move the Futemma facility out of the prefecture, Okada remained on the defensive throughout his trip and reiterated that the DPJ's election manifesto did not specifically refer to Futemma.
     ''It is not a fact that we promised in our manifesto to relocate Futemma outside the prefecture or outside Japan,'' Okada told Nakaima during their talks after the Okinawa governor referred to growing expectations among people in Okinawa regarding the idea.
     In the manifesto, the DPJ vaguely stated that it will ''move in the direction of reexamining the realignment of U.S. military forces in Japan and the role of U.S. military bases in Japan.''
     While the prospects for a merger of Futemma and Kadena apparently remain bleak, some experts say that Okada's effort to propose a study on the idea in itself is significant.
     ''The existing plan is not seen as the best plan, but the second best...So I think it is important to make efforts to discuss other options before making a final decision, no matter what kind of conclusion it may be,'' said Toshiya Hoshino, a professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy.
     ''We should not forget that moving ahead with the existing plan will also require a big decision -- whether we really need to make a new base from scratch by reclaiming some beautiful offshore areas,'' he said.
     But Hoshino also warned that it would be ''irresponsible'' for the government to spend too much time on the review process as it would go against Okinawa's hope of avoiding an even more protracted situation during which the Futemma facility remains in a crowded residential area.
     Thirteen years have already passed since Japan and the United States reached the agreement on the return of the land used by the facility to Japan.
==Kyodo