TOKYO: The Japanese government has agreed with the main landowner to buy a southwestern Japan island of Mageshima, a candidate site to relocate US military training, for some 16 billion yen, according to informed sources.

After completing procedures to acquire the island, the Japanese Defense Ministry will start constructing facilities necessary for transferring the field carrier landing practice, or FCLP, operations of US carrier-borne aircraft, the sources said.

The Japanese and US governments agreed in 2011 to move the site for FCLP operations to Mageshima from Iwojima, formally Iwoto, a Pacific island belonging to Tokyo, in line with a decision to transfer US carrier-based aircraft from the US Navy's Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture, eastern Japan, to the US Marine Corps' Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan.

The ministry then began negotiations with the Tokyo-based developer that owns most of Mageshima on acquiring the island in Kagoshima Prefecture.

In January this year, the Japanese government reached a broad agreement with the developer to purchase the island for about 16 billion yen. But the price negotiations had been prolonged due to a change of the company's president.

JIJI Press