Read ‘em：米軍へ提供の施設、返還合意

YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa — The Japan-U.S. Joint Committee agreed on Dec. 14 to return to Japan about 2,500 square meters of a road from a U.S. military residential area in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture, which serves as an entryway for medical facilities, the municipal government announced the same day.

The deal to return the road in the city of Zushi came 20 years after an application was submitted to the Japanese government in 2002. If realized, this will be the fourth such return in the city since the microwave communications facility in December 1978. The city aims to reclaim the road and other items by the end of 2023, after the national government carries out an inspection amongst other procedures.

The items that were agreed to be returned, which was relayed to the Zushi Municipal Government by the Japanese Defense Ministry’s South Kanto Defense Bureau, include a roadway (approximately 211 meters long and 6 meters wide) and a sidewalk (roughly 158 meters long and 2.5 meters wide) in front of a gate to the U.S. Navy housing area, which spans Ikego and other areas of the city, as well as sewage pipes under the road.

The road was provided by Japan to the U.S. military after World War II, but was put into joint use shortly before the Medical Health Welfare Zuyou and the municipal health center opened in April 2001 in a location adjacent to the Ikego residential area, and was maintained by the city as a municipal road.

However, in May 2002, the municipal government applied to the former bureau of the current South Kanto Defense Bureau for the return of the property, on the grounds that “if unforeseen circumstances arise and traffic is restricted, the (medical and health) centers’ operations will be hindered.”

Zushi Mayor Satoru Kirigaya said at the press conference, “This is good news on a long-standing issue.” Regarding the Ikego no Mori Shizen Koen park (approximately 40 hectares), whose use by citizens is partially restricted and whose return is the city’s biggest target, he said, “I think this will be a trigger for the return (of the park),” and stressed his commitment to seeking its return.

　神奈川県逗子市の米軍池子住宅地区にある医療保健施設の進入路（約2500平方メートル）について、市は14日、同日開かれた日米合同委員会で返還合意したと発表した。防衛省南関東防衛局から市に連絡があった。米軍に提供されている市内施設の返還合意は2002年の国への申請以来20年ぶり。実現すれば市内施設では1978年12月のマイクロ通信施設以来4例目となる。市は、国の測量などを経て来年中の返還実現を目指す。

　合意したのは、同市池子などにまたがる米軍池子住宅のゲート前の車道（長さ約211メートル、幅約6メートル）や歩道（同約158メートル、同2・5メートル）、道路下の下水管など。道路は戦後、国から米軍に提供されたが、池子住宅地区に隣接した場所に2001年4月、逗葉地域医療センター・逗子市保健センターがオープンしたため、その直前に共同使用を開始し、市道として市が維持管理していた。

　しかし、「不測の事態が発生し通行が規制されるとセンターの運営に支障が生じる」として、02年5月に横浜防衛施設局（現在の南関東防衛局）に返還を申請していた。

　桐ケ谷覚市長は記者会見で「長年の課題でうれしいニュース」としたうえで、市民の利用が一部制限され、最大の返還目標としている池子の森自然公園（約40ヘクタール）についても「返還のきっかけになると思う」と述べ、公園の返還を求めていく姿勢を強調した。