WASHINGTON — To some, the long-stalled agreement to relocate a United States Marine base from a heavily populated area of Okinawa, Japan, to a smaller city might finally be seeing the light of day. During his visit to Japan in April, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “We look forward to the facility’s construction beginning soon.” A few weeks later at a news conference in Tokyo, President Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that progress had been made.

But for Susumu Inamine, mayor of the smaller city, Nago, the fight is far from over. In meetings at think tanks and with United States government officials this week, Mr. Inamine said that the government in Tokyo and Okinawa’s governor, who support the plan, did not speak for the island’s citizens.

The city of Nago, he said, has the power to slow down or block construction of the base by deciding which roads or ports can be used and by exercising its authority to approve or deny certain permits. “What I really wanted to express here was if they unilaterally push forward this plan against the local people, it will not work well,” he said through an interpreter.

Image Susumu Inamine Credit... Toru Yamanaka/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

When Mr. Inamine was asked at a news conference whether he found any sympathetic ears on his trip, it was hard for him to say. “This is a Japanese domestic issue for the U.S. people,” he conceded. A member of his delegation said the mayor did not have any meetings with Department of Defense staff members. The highest-ranking executive branch official with whom they met was the deputy of the Japan desk at the Department of State.