TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada on Friday expressed displeasure at a recent U.S. military parachuting drill at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa's main island, indicating it might have flouted a bilateral accord.
Inada said U.S. parachute drop training should be "basically" conducted at an airfield on nearby Ie Island under a Japan-U.S. accord reached in 1996, and that the use of the U.S. Air Force base for parachuting training should be an "exception."
"But the United States did not offer sufficient explanation on why the exercise conducted (Wednesday) amounted to an exceptional case," Inada said at a regular press conference. "It is extremely deplorable that it took place at Kadena Air Base without Japan and the United States able to share the same perception in advance."
"The Japanese side does not think this was an exceptional case," she added.
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