News Analysis: Complete stalemate in thorny Okinawa base row as Abe's U.S. visit looms

A widening rift between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga showed no signs of narrowing on Friday as the pair met for the first time face to face to discuss the controversial relocation of a U.S. air base within Japan's tiny southernmost island prefecture.

"We will never allow the government to build a new base in Henoko," Onaga told Abe at the meeting, insisting that if a new base is to be build, it should be built outside of Okinawa Prefecture.

Onaga, a staunch opponent to the planned construction of a new base involving the reclamation of land from the sea in Oura Bay in Henoko, Okinawa, to replace the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, also said he had asked the prime minister to tell U.S. President Barack Obama that the people of Okinawa do not support the plan to relocate the air base.

The latest impasse will undoubtedly cause Washington a headache as it has called for the central government here to do more to balance the relocation move with empathy towards the feelings of the islanders and their decades-old U.S. base hosting burdens.

Abe is due to meet Obama on April 28 in Washington and the ongoing Okinawa deadlock is thought by many analysts to top the agenda of the summit between the two.

Abe failed to confirm, however, whether he would raise Onaga's request to relay the fact that the people of Okinawa continue to ardently oppose the base's move.

On the contrary, he said that the building of a new base in the coastal Henoko region remained the only solution.

PM'S PR GAME

Friday's meeting was originally called for by Onaga, and sources close to the matter said Abe only accepted the meeting as a sign to Washington that he was making an effort to dialogue with Okinawa officials on the stalled matter and be seen as making an effort to understand the locals' feelings.

Abe, increasingly under the international media spotlight ahead of his visit to the United States and a critical statement that he ' s due to deliver on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, which if it follows the prime minister's revisionist stance on history, could further sour ties with nations Japan brutalized during World War II, said that as well as moving forward with the base relocation, he wants to return other military facilities and land to the people of Okinawa.

In a recent upper house session, Abe said it would be efficacious for his government to talk to officials on the island, including Onaga, aimed to build more trust.

But political watchers here have said that Abe's new-found congenial remarks on the matter run completely contrary to actual moves by his central government, as evidenced in the words of Suga, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and the moves by the regional defense bureau.

Observers have stated that it may be the case that Abe needs to be seen to be actively improving the ever-worsening relationship between his government and prefectural officials in Okinawa, or deal with the wrath of Washington on the issue.

They intimated that today's meeting with Onaga was merely a PR stunt to achieve this purpose and hopefully appease Washington somewhat.

Abe has said that U.S. Camp Zukeran, which is spread over a large area in the central part of the main island and more than 1, 000 hectares in the densely populated regions, will be returned to the island over the next 15 years, but experts close to the situation in Okinawa said the local citizens have heard such rhetoric before and there is a growing mistrust of anything the central government says on such issues, due to the current administration's plans to bulldoze through Onaga's orders and previous administrations flip-flopping over the Futenma relocation issue.

SOURING SENTIMENT

Such mistrust is leading to increasing frustration from the local citizens, who have been seen taking to the streets with placards and megaphones to show their opposition to the central government's moves.

Anti-U.S. sentiment has been steadily growing on the island as base-related pollution and accidents, threatens the environment and safety of the locals and crimes committed by U.S. military personnel, in particular, spark fury in the locals.

Political analysts have said the central government needs to remain cognizant of the feelings of the people of Okinawa and the history of their suffering, which, among other heinous crimes, includes the brutal rape of an elementary schoolgirl in Okinawa by three U.S. servicemen in 1995 and other incidents such as in 2004 when a Marine CH-53D Sea Stallion heavy assault transport helicopter plowed into the Okinawa International University in Ginowan. Endi