Japan minister fired over US airbase
The Japanese premier fires a minister for rejecting Tokyo's recent compromise with Washington on a controversial US air base on Okinawa Island. Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama dismissed consumer affairs minister Mizuho Fukushima, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Tokyo and Washington have issued a statement, saying that the Futenma air station in the southern island of Okinawa would be relocated to a new site on the same island. Fukushima told a press conference that she "could not betray the people of Okinawa," Press TV's Michael Penn reported. The former minister added that she "could not accept the plan to create a new US airbase on the island which would increase the burden for Okinawan people." Fukushima said that politics demanded trust and that if she betrayed her campaign promises to the people, she would be breaking that trust.