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US MILITARY forces in Japan said yesterday they were returning land to authorities in Okinawa in a bid to placate protests against their presence.
US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced a plan to hand over two sites totalling just 17 acres — by March 2018.
The area amounts to less than 0.7 per cent of the 2,590 acres to be returned under existing agreements.
Some of the land is needed for road works to relieve traffic congestion. The two governments agreed to grant builders access for preliminary work.
Okinawa hosts more than half of the 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan.
Residents object to their presence not only due to the danger of flights over urban areas but because of a string of rapes and murders of local women and children over the past 70 years.
