NHK WORLD News:Okinawa surveys reefs at proposed US base site

photo:The Ryukyu Shimpo

The Okinawa prefectural government has begun checking the seabed off the city of Nago for possible reef damage caused by preparatory work for a new US military base.

The survey started in the no-entry zone off the city's Henoko district on Monday. The area has been proposed as the relocation site for the US Marine Corps Futenma air station. The base is now in a densely populated area of the island.

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BBC News:Japan military legislation changes draw protests

30 August 2015

Thousands of people have protested outside of Japan's parliament against new legislation that would allow the military to deploy overseas.

The changes would allow Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since World War Two.

The legislation has already been passed by Japan's lower house and is expected to be endorsed by the upper chamber.

Under its constitution, Japan is barred from using force to resolve conflicts except in cases of self-defence.

But a reinterpretation of the law will now allow "collective self-defence" - using force to defend allies under attack.

Police are lining the streets and telling protesters to move along in an attempt to minimise disruption in the capital's centre.

Despite the wet weather conditions, tens of thousands of protesters poured out onto the streets demanding that their pacifist constitution be protected and calling for the prime minister to step down.

The streets were lined with police vans but given how unprecedented it is for the Japanese to be so vocal, there was never any fear that things would get out of hand.

These demonstrations have been taking place all summer, mainly led by students and young people who say they wish to protect Japan's pacifist constitution.

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NHK WORLD News: Largest rally held against national security bills

photo:Mainichi Shimbun

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in central Tokyo to oppose national security bills in the largest rally so far against the proposed legislation.

The organizers say about 120,000 people gathered near the Diet building on Sunday. The police say 30,000 took part in the rally.

In front of the gate of the building, protesters carried placards with the messages "Don't destroy Article 9" and "We won't let any children be killed".

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photo:Osaka rally by SDCC

Okinawa Prefectural Fisheries Cooperative leaders protest U.S. military helicopter crash

August 20, 2015 Ryukyu Shimpo

On August 12, a U.S. Army Special Operations MH-60M Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a U.S. Navy cargo vessel off the shore of Uruma City. In response, on August18, the presidents of 36 regional fisheries cooperatives making up the Okinawa Prefectural Fisheries Cooperative Presidents’ Association unanimously adopted a protest resolution demanding thorough measures toward preventing future incidents. At a general meeting held at Okinawa Fisheries Assembly Hall in Naha the same day, the president of Yonashiro Fisheries Cooperative proposed an urgent motion to address the resolution.

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Al Jazeera America：70 years after the war, Okinawa protests new US military base

　　photo:Some 35,000 demonstrators raise placards reading “Do not yield to authority” during a rally to protest the Futenma U.S. air base on Okinawa, Japan, in May 2015. Jiji Press / AFP / Getty Images


Residents of Japanese island oppose relocation of controversial Futenma facility to Cape Henoko
August 24, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Jon Letman

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series examining the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.

HENOKO, Japan ― Demonstrators, many old enough to have survived the bloody Battle of Okinawa as children, sing buoyant but defiant protest songs while holding placards reading “No new base” and “Give us back peace, give us back land.” One sign, directed at the U.S. Marines reads, “We respect you but not your job.”

Polls consistently show Okinawans and, increasingly, mainland Japanese are opposed to replacing Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, a sprawling military base in the south of the island, with a new facility in the rural Henoko district of Nago in northern Okinawa. Referred to as Henoko, the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF) is planned to have multiple helipads, 5,900-foot dual runways, an ordnance depot, a fuel depot and an 892-foot pier capable of docking amphibious assault ships.

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