Stockbyte/Thinkstock(TOKYO) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday that the U.S. will return some land on its military base in Okinawa back to the Japanese government.
Carter made the announcement at a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
The Japanese government said it will build six helicopter landing zones and access roads so that U.S. forces can continue to train and operate at the base.
“Today, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Japanese Prime Minister Abe will announce the intent to return part of the Northern Training Area in Okinawa, Japan to the Government of Japan by the end of this year,” a senior defense official told ABC News.
Residents have grown increasingly frustrated with the U.S. military presence on Okinawa, fueled by a series of incidents involving American service members stationed there. Large crowds gathered on the small island over the summer to protest a U.S. contractor’s alleged rape and murder of a local Japanese woman.
In March of 2016, an American sailor was arrested on a charge of raping a Japanese woman. And just before the March incident, Stars and Stripes reported that a 33-year-old lieutenant in the U.S. Navy was arrested for allegedly groping a 19-year-old Japanese woman on an airplane and punching her multiple times in the head.
The official said the agreement marks the largest land return by the United States to Japan since 1972.
The official called it “a positive development for the alliance, demonstrating the ongoing commitment of both governments to the realignment of U.S. forces.”
A formal ceremony for the return will take place on Dec. 21 and 22.
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