The Japanese government takes steps against Okinawa blocking U.S. base landfill work

The Japanese government takes steps against Okinawa blocking U.S. base landfill work
The Japan Times
Oct 17, 2018

Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya speaks to reporters Wednesday in Tokyo about the government's steps to go ahead with a plan to relocate the U.S. Futenma air base to the Henoko district of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture. | KYODO

The central government has requested that the land ministry review and invalidate the Okinawa Prefectural Government decision that forced a suspension on relocation work for the controversial U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.

“We still hope to realize an early (base) relocation to the Henoko area and the return of (land occupied by) Futenma Air Station,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Wednesday.

The landfill work was approved in 2013 by then-Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima, but his successor, Takeshi Onaga, who died in office in August, revoked the approval in 2015. In a court battle that followed, the revocation was found to be illegal and Onaga rescinded it in late 2016.

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Dugong lawsuit appealed to U.S. High Court

September 26, 2018 Ryukyu Shimpo
Washington Special Correspondent Yukiyo Zaha


A dugong, a national natural treasure, swims in the waters off coast of Kayo, Nago City, in March 2008.

On September 24 the plaintiffs in the dugong lawsuit, who requested a stop to construction of the Futenma Replacement Facility in Henoko, Nago City, appealed to the Federal High Court after the San Francisco District Court dismissed an appeal of the lawsuit.

U.S. and Japanese environmental conservation groups brought this case against the United States for the purpose of protecting endangered dugongs. The High Court will soon judge to accept or reject this appeal.

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U.S. Marine’s Son Wins Okinawa Election on Promise to Oppose Military Base

The New York Times
Sept. 30, 2018


Denny Tamaki, center, on Sunday celebrating his victory in the Okinawa governor’s race.CreditCreditHitoshi Maeshiro/EPA, via Shutterstock

U.S. Marine’s Son Wins Okinawa Election on Promise to Oppose Military Base

TOKYO — Denny Tamaki, the son of a Japanese mother and a United States Marine, became the first mixed-race governor in Japan on Sunday after winning a close election in Okinawa, a southern archipelago heavily populated by American military installations.

His victory poses a setback to plans by the Japanese government and the United States to transfer a busy Marine air base on Okinawa from the city of Ginowan to a less populated coastal area on the island.

Mr. Tamaki wants the base moved out of Okinawa altogether. His opponent, Atsushi Sakima, who was backed by Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was until recently the mayor of Ginowan and supported the base’s transfer.

Mr. Tamaki, 58, succeeds Takeshi Onaga, an outspoken critic of the American bases, who died in August from complications of pancreatic cancer.

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