Minister quashes Onaga's instructions, lets Futenma project continue

The Asahi Shimbun: Minister quashes Onaga's instructions, lets Futenma project continue

Fisheries minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on March 30 temporarily invalidated the Okinawa governor’s instructions to suspend seabed surveying work for a new U.S. military air station, allowing the contentious project to continue.

Hayashi’s decision was based on a request by the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau to verify the validity of Okinawa Governor Takeshi Onaga’s instructions under the law on evaluating administrative action when disagreements exist.

Onaga had pointed out that the central government could not submit a request to evaluate his instructions because the purpose of the law is to let private individuals make complaints about administrative action.

read more…

Sign Now!! Joint Urgent Statement of NGO

31 non-governmental organizations in the world released a statement to oppose the Construction of a New Military Base at Henoko and call on the Japanese Government to listen to the voices of Okinawan people and stop the construction.

Please sign the petition to save Henoko. We call for your support to demand. Signatures will be collected untill the April 12, 2015 and be submitted to the Government of Japan and U.S.

Sign as Individual

Sign as Organization

read more…

3.21 Stop Henoko Construction! Osaka Action

3.21 Stop Henoko Construction! Osaka Action in response to Okinawa Action.


Company logo colors is blue




Yutaka Umisedo,Okinawan Musician and the head of Save the Campaign Center,
participate the assembly.


We reported Okinawa visit from March 5 to 9th.


About 200 protesters demanded a stop the construction of a new base in Henoko,
Preserve Dugong and democracy.


New Base construction in Henoko
Sure you want to say that?


No to the Henoko landfill

ZAN

Stop the Henoko Base! 3,900 people gathered in the Sedake beach

Okinawan showed the intention to stop the Henoko Base.




Okinawan sculptor Kinjo Minoru.
He carves statues for peace.

Okinawan Civil Society Sends A Letter of Condemnation and Demand to US Military in Okinawa

On March 3, 2015, 30 groups of the Okinawan civil society sent a letter of condemnation and demand to the US military in Okinawa regarding the arrest and detention of two Japanese citizens (one Okinawan and the other Japanese) by the US military on February 22 (see below the full text of the letter).


All Okinawa Protest Rally at Camp Schwab on Feb. 22

The arrest and detention of the two individuals took place at the main gate of Camp Schwab, a US Marine Corps base in Okinawa, Japan as the two were protesting there along with others against the Japanese and US governments’ construction of a military base in Henoko and Oura Bay, adjacent to Camp Schwab (see The Japan Times and The Okinawa Times).

One of the individuals arrested, Mr. Hiroji Yamashiro of the Okinawa Heiwa Undo Center, was scheduled to chair an all-Okinawa protest rally to be held just a few meters from the place of the arrest later that day.

Since July 2014, the Japanese government has been using its power and violence to suppress the anti base construction movement of Okinawa and to push forward the construction of the military base (see The Ryukyu Shimpo). Now, the US military appears to have moved from its previous position of “bystander” to become an active participant in the oppression of the Okinawan movement.

While the groups members are very concerned with this new role the US military plays in Okinawa, they also take this as an opportunity for them to more directly take issue with and challenge the US military on the issue of the construction of the base. The letter of condemnation and demand signifies this new direction the Okinawan civil society is taking.


From Oura wansaka park, a new life-size dugong statue looks toward Oura Bay.


Hideki Yoshikawa

from Okinawa Outreach blog