By Trefor Moss
Tokyo appears to be on the verge of finally settling the controversial issue. Will it succeed?
By Okinawan standards, it may not have been the U-turn of the century: the island is well accustomed to politicians saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite. Rather, the decision of Governor Hirokazu Nakaima to approve the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma – after years of consistently opposing such a move – is but the latest surprising, yet somehow entirely predictable, development in Okinawa’s political history.
Nakaima must have known that he would be branded a traitor for approving a long-delayed U.S.-Japanese plan to move MCAS Futenma to a new site at Henoko village, some 30 miles to the northeast. For a long time, opinion polls have tracked opposition to Futenma’s relocation within Okinawa prefecture at 60-70 percent. In Nago City, of which Henoko is a part, opposition is probably even higher. And Nakaima won re-election as governor in 2010 partly due to his stance that Futenma should not be relocated within Okinawa. The relocation deal is the leading issue in the current Nago mayoral election campaign, with a pro-relocation candidate supported by Tokyo pitted against an opponent who, if he wins, could frustrate the relocation process.
Futenma itself, situated right in the middle of Ginowan City, is unloved: the 50 or so Marine Corps aircraft based there, which include the controversial MV-22 Osprey, are noisy, and the possibility that one might crash makes local residents nervous. So it is Futenma’s relocation, not its closure, which people oppose.
Read the full story at The Diplomat