TAIPEI, Taiwan — The US military will return 4,000 hectares (15.4 square miles) of land in Okinawa back to the Japanese government, reducing the amount of land administered by the US military by 17 percent, according to a news release issued by the Public Affairs Office at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on Friday.
The area is a section of the Northern Training Area on Okinawa used for jungle warfare. The conditional land return is part of the 1996 Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO) report. This will be the largest parcel of land returned to the Japanese government since Okinawa’s reversion in 1972, said the news release.
The partial return of the Northern Training Area is one portion of other initiatives and agreements with Japan to consolidate US military facilities on Okinawa, with the eventual goal of returning most facilities south of Kadena Air Base. Kadena is home of the 18th Wing and includes two squadrons of F-15C/D fighter aircraft.
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