KAMISEYA — U.S. Navy officials Monday could “neither confirm nor deny” Japanese media reports that the Navy will close the Kamiseya communications facility near Yokohama and move its personnel to Misawa Air Base.

The Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported Saturday that an agreement has been reached to move U.S. forces stationed at Naval Support Facility Kamiseya and return the land to its former Japanese owners.

“At any given time, the U.S. Navy has under consideration numerous plans concerning the most efficient use of our facilities worldwide,” said Cmdr. David Wells.

“In the event any significant changes to the use of facilities in Japan are contemplated, the Government of Japan and the public will be notified.”

Citing unnamed “Japanese and U.S. government sources,” the Mainichi report also said an agreement has been reached to close other facilities near Yokohama.

Kamiseya, which occupies 587 acres northeast of Atsugi Naval Air Facility, is home to about 300 sailors, their families and a small number of civilian employees.

The primary presence on the base is Patrol Wing 1, which is part of Task Force 72 and control center for Navy P-3C patrol aircraft and EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft in the Pacific region.

The aircraft are based at Misawa; Kadena Air Base, Okinawa; and Diego Garcia island.

A spokesman for the Japan Defense Facilities Administration Agency, which administers U.S. bases in Japan, denied the Mainichi report.

The decision was a “breakthrough in bilateral negotiations on the return of land lots the U.S. Navy occupies in Yokohama,” the report stated.

A joint U.S.-Japan committee has held several meetings in recent months to discuss land issues and the U.S. footprint on the Kanto Plain.

Two weeks ago, a spokesman for U.S. Forces Japan denied separate reports that the Navy had agreed to combine the housing areas at Negishi and Ikego.

A committee meeting scheduled for last week, at which officials said the base closure and consolidation issues would be clarified, was postponed. That meeting has not yet been rescheduled.

Kamiseya was used by the Japanese in World War II as a torpedo assembly facility. In 1952, it was reopened as a hub for the U.S. Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station. By the 1960s, more than 1,500 personnel were assigned to the base, which had been renamed U.S. Naval Security Group Activity Kimiseya.

In 1995, three of the six Kamiseya tenant commands — the Naval Security Group Activity; the Joint Intelligence Command Pacific Detachment, Pacific; and a U.S. Marine Corps detachment — left the base.

Now, Kamiseya is known as a quiet, secluded base with just under 70 housing units surrounded by open farmland.