TOKYO — Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday the Japanese government will start efforts to relocate U.S. military bases from heavily burdened Okinawa to other parts of Japan.
Speaking at Kyodo News, Koizumi also said the government will try to submit to parliament a postal privatization bill by March and to limit next fiscal year's general policy expenditure in the national budget at the level of that of the initial budget for this fiscal year that started in April.
"In order to reduce the burden of bases on Okinawa, the Japanese government will consider from now where the bases should be relocated other than Okinawa, may consult beforehand with municipalities concerned, and upon the municipalities' consent, will take Japan's idea to the United States," Koizumi said.
"If they all agree to reducing Okinawa's burdens in general terms, I think we should urge them to take such a responsible step as to indicate where in other places than Okinawa they can accept U.S. bases," the premier told a meeting of editors in chief of local newspapers across Japan.
In a press conference in New York last week, Koizumi for the first time expressed his readiness to promote domestic discussions to relocate the bases from Okinawa to other parts of Japan, and made his intentions clearer in his latest address.
Koizumi made his earlier remarks the day after agreeing with Bush in their latest summit talks in New York to pursue both maintaining the U.S. military capability in the region and reducing the burden on Okinawa.
As for the other pressing issues of the fiscal 2005 budget compilation and postal reforms, Koizumi said he will maintain his fiscal stand and continue pushing for the reforms to be legislated in the next fiscal year and take effect in April 2007.
"I will try again in the next fiscal year's budget to have general policy expenditures not to effectively exceed the previous year's level and put priorities on its allocation," Koizumi said.
Calling his postal privatization drive "the ultimate target of restructuring the public sector," Koizumi voiced determination not to succumb to opposition from within his Liberal Democratic Party as well as the opposition camp.
"Every political party is opposed to it at the bottom line," he said.
"But I believe I can get the ruling parties' cooperation in the end, that they will act sensibly," the premier said citing the example of his earlier contentious initiative to privatize highway builders, which will materialize next year.
"We will draw up a bill in line with the basic policy the cabinet has adopted, will have to submit it by March, and however coordination is difficult...will privatize it in April 2007," Koizumi said.
The government formalized as a cabinet decision last month a plan to split the state-backed Japan Post into four companies at the start of a 10-year privatization process in April 2007 without getting the backing of the LDP.
Many LDP lawmakers, amid the backdrop of firm votes by postmasters of small post offices nationwide, prefer that Japan Post continue reforming itself following its creation in April last year taking over the government-run postal services of mail delivery, savings and the "kampo" life insurance. (Kyodo News)
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