Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada admitted Nov. 16 that it would be difficult to "completely scrap" the 2006 Japan-U.S. accord on reorganizing the American forces in Japan that includes the planned relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa.

He made the remarks after meeting strong resistance from local governments over his call to consider merging the Futenma flight operations, in Ginowan, with the nearby U.S. Kadena air base instead of moving the base farther north to Nago, as per the bilateral accord.

At a news conference to wrap up a two-day visit to the prefecture, Okada also said it is "too early" to talk about the feasibility of moving Futenma's operations to Kadena.