BEIJING (AP) — The United States and Japan have reached an agreement allowing the MV-22 Osprey military aircraft to begin flight operations in Japan, officials said Wednesday. The deal had been in question because of protests by Japanese citizens who feared the hybrid aircraft was not safe.

The Pentagon said in a statement that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was pleased with the agreement, which calls for the deployment of 12 of the aircraft to the southwestern island of Okinawa. Japan’s defense minister, Satoshi Morimoto, said Tokyo was satisfied the aircraft — which takes off and lands like a helicopter but can fly like a plane — was safe, but Okinawa’s Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima said he remained concerned and called the government’s handling of the matter “insincere.”