U.S. military exercise to be shifted to Guam

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan and the United States agreed Tuesday to shift the location of a U.S. fighter jet training exercise scheduled this month at U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture to Guam, sources said.

The exercise involving fighter jets belonging to the U.S. Marine Corps' Iwakuni Air Station in Yamaguchi Prefecture, scheduled to take place at Kadena Air Base from Monday to Oct. 31, will now be conducted at facilities in Guam. According to the sources, 20 F/A-18 fighter jets and about 400 personnel will participate in the exercise.

The purpose of the change is to reduce noise caused by U.S. fighter jets at areas surrounding the Kadena base. It will be the first time U.S. military exercises held in Japan will be shifted outside the nation's territory, although the shift is not permanent.

The details of the move were decided Tuesday at a Japan-U.S. joint committee meeting on the realignment of the U.S. forces in Japan.

Tokyo and Washington agreed to shift some U.S. fighter and refueling and transportation exercises conducted at Kadena Air Base to Guam and other locations outside Okinawa Prefecture in January.

The governments have also agreed to move some Kadena Air Base F-15 fighter jets training exercises usually conducted near Okinawa Prefecture to Guam. The governments will soon begin discussing the details involved, sources said.

It is expected about five military exercises involving the U.S. forces in Japan will be conducted in Guam and other locations outside Okinawa Prefecture by March. Two or three will be conducted in Guam, including the training exercise scheduled this month, the sources said.

Noise problems at Kadena Air Base have become a serious problem for Okinawa Prefecture in recent years, as it is used as a training ground for jet fighters from various other bases in addition to its own.

Shifting the location of training exercises is one of the ways in which the governments are trying to decrease the burden of hosting U.S. bases on residents in Okinawa Prefecture. However, some training exercises involving Iwakuni Air Station fighter jets will continue at the Kadena Air Base, the sources said.

Japan will pay 75 percent of the expenses incurred by U.S. forces--such as fuel costs--to conduct such training exercises in Guam instead of in Okinawa Prefecture.

This rate will be reviewed every two years as the exercises in Guam are expected to take place in fiscal 2012 and in following years.