The Japanese Ministry of Defence has decided to allocate around 16 billion yen (more than $147 million) for the purchase of uninhabited Mage Island in Kagoshima Prefecture in the country's south-west to use it for massive aircraft drills involving US aircraft carriers, according to Japan's Yomiuri newspaper.
The island, currently owned by a private company from Tokyo, is expected to be handed over to the Japanese military before the end of March. A preliminary agreement is due to be signed in the next few days.
READ MORE: Three US Osprey Jets Arrive at Japan's Misawa Air Base for Joint Military Drills
Planes make a lot of noise taking off and landing during the deck-based aircraft exercises, something that has repeatedly prompted residents and local governments to protest in Japan.
In 2011, the US and Japanese military agreed to work out the issue of relocating a training ground for the deck-based drills to Mage Island, located just 400 kilometres (248 miles) from the US Iwakuni Air Force Base in the southeast of Honshu Island, where about 60 United States carrier-based aircraft were earlier deployed.
