US military helicopter crashes off Okinawa, all on board rescued

TOKYO: A US military helicopter crashed in waters off the Japanese southern island of Okinawa, Japan's defense ministry said on Wednesday, citing information from the US military.

The Japanese Coast Guard, citing the US military, said that all 17 people on board the UH-60 Black Hawk had been rescued, including seven who were injured. The US Forces, Japan, had no immediate comment.

The accident comes as Japan's central government begins talks with Okinawa's governor over contentious plans to relocate a US Marines air base to a less crowded part of the island, host to the bulk of US military forces in Japan.

Residents of Okinawa, the site of bloody battles between US and Japanese forces near the end of World War Two, have long objected to tens of thousands of US troops and US military installations on 18 per cent of their island.

Many residents associate the US bases with accidents, crime and pollution.

Japan's central government earlier this month suspended construction of a replacement facility for the US Marines' Futenma air base for a month to give time for talks between Tokyo and island authorities opposed to the base.

The island's governor, Takeshi Onaga, won office last year largely on his stand against US bases, and has accused Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of looking down on the island's people.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga met Onaga to discuss the issue. Kyodo news agency quoted Onaga as repeating his call for a reduction of the base-hosting burden.

The suspension of construction had been intended to take the emotive issue off the table while the government pushes sensitive security bills through parliament.

The legislation, which could allow Japanese troops to fight overseas for the first time since World War Two, has passed parliament's lower house and is being debated in the upper chamber, but it has dragged down Abe's support rate to less than 40 per cent because of public concerns over the policy shift.