You soon may have an opportunity to own a piece of a former U.S. military base in and near the Tokyo area.

A Japanese Finance Ministry advisory panel draft report proposes selling 988 acres of state-owned land formerly used by U.S. Forces Japan. The land would be sold in nine tracts to local governments or private companies, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

A ministry subcommittee made the recommendation to sell the parcels, some of which contain abandoned and deteriorating buildings.

A final report is expected by mid-June. The ministry will then ask local governments that administer areas in which the tracts are located to draft plans for the land’s future use.

Tracts are expected to be offered for sale before the end of this year at the earliest, the newspaper quoted ministry sources as saying. The panel proposed selling the land because of the Japanese government’s difficult financial situation and to promote redeveloping local communities, the sources said.

The nine former U.S. facilities reportedly expected to go up for sale are:

¶ Remaining portions of Tachikawa Air Base, Fuchu Air Station and the Kanto Mura Dependent Housing Area and airfield, all in western Tokyo.

¶ Yokohama Beach dependent housing area and Camp Fuchinobe in Kanagawa Prefecture.

¶ Former residential housing areas of Johnson Air Base and Camp Asaka in Saitama Prefecture, Mito Air-to-Ground Range in Ibaraki Prefecture and Kashiwa Communication Site in Chiba Prefecture.

Migrated