Japan gov't agrees to buy island for U.S. military drills for 16 bil. yen

The government said Monday it has agreed to buy an uninhabited island in Japan's southwest with an eye to using it as a U.S. military takeoff and landing training site.The 16 billion yen ($146 million) acquisition of the 8-square-kilometer Mage Island in Kagoshima Prefecture will pave the way for the relocation of the practice site for U.S. carrier-borne fighters from Iwoto Island in the Pacific, some 1,200 km south of Tokyo."It's important to secure the site for field carrier landing practice from the viewpoint of security so we will continue to try to build a permanent facility at an earl…READ FULL ARTICLE