Recently, The United States and Japan have reconfirmed their plans to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps base on Okinawa to a less populated area, the U.S. Department of State said in a press release on Friday.

“The Ministers… welcomed the significant progress on the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) and reconfirmed that the plan to construct the FRF at the Camp Schwab-Henokosaki area and adjacent waters is the only solution that avoids the continued use of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma,” the release said. “The Ministers underscored their strong determination to achieve its completion as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee 2019 Fact Sheet released by the State Department said that the U.S. and Japan are determined to start relocating U.S. forces from Okinawa to Guam in the first half of the next decade.”The Ministers welcomed progress in the steady implementation of the Guam International Agreement, and the planned relocation of approximately 9,000 U.S. Marine Corps personnel from Okinawa to locations outside of Japan,” the fact sheet said. “They reconfirmed the plan to begin the relocation to Guam in the first half of the 2020s.”

As Sputnik reported,   Earlier on Friday, the U.S.-Japan Security Consultative Committee, which included U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting U.S. Secretary of Defence Patrick Shanahan, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toro Kono, and Japanese Minister of Defence Takeshi Iwaya, convened in Washington, DC, the release added.The plan is to relocate the U.S. air base from the prefecture’s city of Ginowan to a less populated area, Henoko Bay.

Denny Tamaki, the governor of Japan’s southern Okinawa Prefecture, told Sputnik on April 10 that he was considering a visit to the United States in order to convey the opposition of the prefecture’s residents to the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma expressed in the latest referendum.In a February referendum more than 72 percent of Okinawa residents voted against the plan to relocate the base. The referendum saw a 52 percent turnout.

Finally, the Japanese government’s game on the White House shows that Tokyo does not yet understand the true demands of the Japanese citizens. The issue that the Japanese authorities must pay attention to.