TOKYO: The partial transfer of US Marines from Okinawa to Guam began on Saturday, 12 years after Japan and the United States agreed on their realignment to reduce the heavy burden of American troop presence on the southern Japanese island, officials said.
The relocation started with 100 members of III Marine Expeditionary Force stationed on Okinawa moving to the Pacific island for the initial logistical work, the US Marine Corps and Japan’s Defense Ministry said in a joint statement.
Under the plan agreed between Tokyo and Washington in April 2012, about 9,000 of the 19,000 Marines currently stationed on Okinawa are to be moved out of Okinawa, including about 4,000 of them to be moved to Guam in phases. Details, including the size and timing of the next transfer, were not immediately released.
The Marine Corps is committed to the defense of Japan and meeting operational requirements to maintain a free and open Indo-Pacific, and it will maintain presence in the region “through a combination of stationing and rotating Marines in Japan, Guam and Hawaii,” the joint statement said.
Japan has paid up to $2.8 billion for the building of infrastructure at the US bases on Guam, and the US government will fund the remaining costs. The two governments will continue to cooperate on the development of Camp Blaz, which will serve as the main installation for Marines stationed in Guam.
The Marines and Japan Self Defense Forces will conduct joint training in Guam, the statement said.
Okinawa, which was under US postwar occupation until 1972, is still home to a majority of the more than 50,000 American troops based in Japan under a bilateral security pact, while 70 percent of US military facilities are on Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japanese land.
Many Okinawans have long complained about the heavy US military presence on the island, and say Okinawa faces noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops.
The relocation is likely to be welcomed by local residents, but how much improvement they will feel is uncertain because of the rapid Japanese military buildup on Okinawan islands as a deterrence to threats from China.
The start of the Marines relocation comes at a time of growing anti-US military sentiment following a series of sexual assault cases involving American servicemembers.
On Thursday, a senior Air Force servicemember belonging to the Kadena Air Base was convicted of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a teenage girl last year, a case that triggered outrage on the island. The Naha District Court sentenced him to five years in prison.

LONDON: Britain’s Prince Andrew was facing intense media scrutiny on Saturday after revelations that a close Chinese business associate of the scandal-hit younger brother of King Charles was thought by the British government to be a Chinese spy.
In a court ruling on Thursday, it was disclosed that the businessman, known only as H6, had been banned from Britain on national security grounds because the authorities suspected he was working clandestinely for Beijing to forge close contacts with prominent British figures.
Late on Friday, Andrew, the Duke of York, issued a statement to the BBC and other media in which he said he had “ceased all contact” with the individual, described in the court documents as a “close confidant,” once concerns were raised.
“The duke met the individual through official channels, with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed,” the statement said.
However, questions about the case have continued to dominate British front pages and news broadcasts.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the British intelligence agency MI5 was investigating Chinese money given to Andrew, while the Times said the prince had invited the businessman to the royal properties Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace and Windsor Castle.
The Mirror reported that King Charles had been briefed by MI5 and was “truly exasperated” by the situation. A royal source told Reuters that Buckingham Palace had been kept informed of the situation in the appropriate ways and at the appropriate junctures.
ESPIONAGE ACCUSATIONS
While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to thaw ties with China since taking office in July, London and Beijing have repeatedly traded spying accusations, with British security services warning of Chinese attempts to infiltrate political, business and academic spheres.
The Chinese embassy in London described the H6 case as another attempt to smear China and sabotage normal working relationships.
The case also shines a light on the finances of the 64-year-old prince.
Andrew, once a dashing naval officer who served in the military during the Falklands War with Argentina in the early 1980s, has now become a royal pariah over his friendship with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
He was forced to step down from a roving UK trade ambassador role in 2011, before quitting all royal duties in 2019 and then being stripped of his military links and royal patronages in 2022 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which he has always denied.
British media have reported that Charles had cut off his allowance and wanted to oust the duke from his Royal Lodge home on the Windsor estate.
The court documents about H6, who had been authorized to act for Andrew to seek investors in China, referred to a 2021 document listing talking points for a call between him and the prince in which he wrote the duke was “in a desperate situation and will grab onto anything.”