Japan's prime minister said Monday he may nix a key military deal with Washington on relocating U.S. troops, after a local election in Okinawa showed that residents oppose any new Marine base in their region. "He can't make a decision now that's going to make both the Americans and Okinawans happy," said Jeff Kingston, Temple University's director of Asian Studies in Tokyo. Hatoyama could use the vote as political cover for rejecting Nago as the relocation site by saying, "'This is how democracy works,' but that's not going to play too well in Washington," Kingston said.