Why plan by US and Japan to relocate Okinawa airbase is hitting turbulence

For nearly three decades, Washington and Tokyo have pledged to close a controversial US airbase in Okinawa, located in the middle of a densely populated island, but the plan is now facing uncertainty. The US military would not return its Futenma airbase to Japanese control until Tokyo builds a longer runway than the one being built at a replacement site in the northeast of Okinawa prefecture, according to a report. Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday that the US Department of...

By Julian Ryall