Apart from this, Foreign Minister Kono and Director-General of the Defense Agency Seishiro Eto of Japan were there, and Ambassador to Japan Walter F. Mondale of the United States was there. The Committee intends to prepare a report within a year, and submit it to the ministerial level. Under this Special Action Committee, a working group is going to be established, and the first working group meeting will be preferably held within this year. As for the second meeting of the Special Action Committee, it will be decided later through diplomatic channels on the basis of the process of the talks at the working group level. The first meeting of the working group will be held, preferably, by the end of this year, but the time has not been fixed yet.
Membership is at the deputy director-general level.
This is a meeting between the Japanese Foreign Minister and Director-General of the Defense Agency, and the United States Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. Basically, they meet regularly, once or twice annually, and during the Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations last September, they met in New York. One of the sub-committees has been dealing with consolidation and realignment of the bases. In other words, it does have the right to discuss a rather drastic change or relocation. In any case, they will tackle the issues of realignment, consolidation and down-scaling.