An estimated 90,000 people rallied in Okinawa yesterday piling fresh pressure on Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's prime minister, as they demanded the removal from the island prefecture of a controversial US marine airbase.
The demonstration, one of the largest ever held in Okinawa, follows weeks of increasingly desperate efforts by Mr Hatoyama's administration to come up with a new relocation plan for the Futenma base ahead of a self-imposed May deadline.
The Washington Post on Saturday reported that US officials were “pleased” by a Japanese proposal it said was made last week that indicated Tokyo would “broadly accept” an existing agreement under which Futenma was to be moved to a site largely reclaimed from Okinawa's scenic Henoko Bay.