U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is ready to meet with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada in Washington on Friday and whether their meeting is realized is up to Okada, the State Department said Tuesday.
   
‘‘What I do know is that the secretary has time on Friday to meet with him, but that I think I have to refer you to the Japanese Foreign Ministry about the plans of Foreign Minister Okada,’’ department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
   
The spokesman made the remarks after the department over the weekend announced Clinton’s meeting with Okada on Friday but retracted it shortly afterward.
   
Although Okada is expected to visit the United States for talks with Clinton possibly on Friday, last-minute arrangements for their meeting are still under way, Japanese government sources said earlier.
   
The sources indicated that the schedule of Diet sessions in Japan is a major factor that has prevented both governments from finalizing details of Okada’s itinerary.
   
Okada has been eager to meet with Clinton ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip to Tokyo later this month to discuss the increasingly divided issue of where a U.S. military airfield in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture should be relocated.
   
The United States has made it clear that Japan should come to a decision in time for Obama’s trip to Tokyo on Nov 12 to 13—and in line with an existing bilateral deal that would transfer the U.S. Marines Corps’ Futenma Air Station within Okinawa.
   
But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has repeated that Tokyo will take time to consider the matter, saying he does not believe Japan has to reach a decision by the time he meets with Obama.
   
Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan, which came to power in September after a sweeping election victory, has promoted the idea of moving the Futenma airfield out of Okinawa or even out of Japan.
   
Differences among Japanese Cabinet members are compounding the issue further, with Okada defying the existing deal and floating the idea of transferring the air base to the nearby U.S. Kadena Air Base.
   
As part of a 2006 bilateral accord on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, which took years to reach, the Futenma base is to be relocated from downtown Ginowan to Nago by 2014.
   
Obama is scheduled to travel to Japan for talks with Hatoyama. Obama’s first visit to Japan since assuming office in January is part of his swing through Asia, which will also take him to Singapore, China and South Korea.