The United States government has officially returned a large chunk of occupied land on the Okinawa Island to Japan, but is pushing ahead with plans to stay on the prefecture despite public outrage.
US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Wednesday in a ceremony to mark the handover of over 4,000 hectares (about 10,000 acres) of land that the US had occupied after the Second World War.
The land was part of a zone commonly known as the Northern Training Area, located inside a vast US military base complex on the Pacific island.
The return was the largest of its kind since 1972, when Washington gave back a large part of the island to Japan. Despite the latest move, 17 percent of Okinawa still remains under US occupation.
After the rape of a Japanese schoolgirl by three US troops in 1996, Washington and Tokyo agreed to relocate some US servicemen outside Okinawa or move others to less populated parts…