Philip:
I thing you may have misinterpreted--it does not appear (if it really is the deal which isn't clear yet) that is about moving more Marines off Okinawa but the same as before.. The original deal was to move 8,000 Marines off the island to Guam. This deal seems to be less than 5,000 Marines from Futenma to Guam with the others instead with some of them going to other bases in Japan (like Iwakuni) or other places.
The idea was to de-link Futenma and the movement of Marines not US fundamentally changing its position I think. So not clear this is actually better and a resolution of the issue or more complications?
See:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120207p2g00m0dm10
5000c.html

Best regards,
Ellis