The Japanese prefecture of Okinawa has finally approved the relocation of a U.S. airbase in Japan, following years of deadlock as local citizens who are tired of hosting a significant part of the US military in the country continue to oppose the new base.

The prefecture's government has consented to allow the US to use a landfill that will allow the construction of new facilities along the coast.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with prefectural governor Hirokazu Nakaima, a major opposition to the central government stationed in Tokyo, and offered huge annual cash injections of a minimum 300 billion yen (USD 2.9 billion) into the island prefecture's economy until 2021, along with a promise to shutter the base in Futenma within the next five years.

The governor is a constant critic of the government in Tokyo, which he says is unsympathetic to Japan's poorest prefecture and still treats the area as an "unsinkable" US aircraft carier.

Nakaima declared that he was impressed with Abe's immediate offer, supported the proposal, and gave the agreement his blessing, which was met with an immediate angry popular reaction in the prefecture.

Protesters surrounded the local government office in the thousands, as locals urge officials not to give in and remove the base from the island altogether.

Local officials signed the document authorizing governor Nakaima's approval to use the Henoko area for the base, which was near the US Camp Schwab.

In 1996, the US agreed to shut down Futenma after anti-base sentiments rose in response to the gang-rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US soldiers in the base.

The agreement is expected to ease tensions between Tokyo and Washington, whose relations dropped when Yukio Hatoyama won the 2009 general election and promised to entirely remove US presence in Okinawa.

Washington is also irritated at PM Abe's recent visit to Yasukuni war shrine, largely seen as a symbol of Japan's imperialism in the 20^th century.

Observers and political analysts see the agreement as a display of Abe's money splurging to negotiate terms.