The new Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa, and the new Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba, both say they will push for the agreed to moving of USMC units from one part of Okinawa to a new location, also on Okinawa.

People living on Okinawa would like to see the USMC gone altogether, but Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba stressed the importance of the U.S. forces in Japan’s defense plans against China.

U.S. forces are part of a multilayered mechanism to avoid misunderstandings in case of ‘accidental occurrences’ between Japan and China.