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The government on April 25 started reclaiming land off the Henoko district of the Okinawa Prefecture city of Nago despite protests from the prefecture, as it prepares to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the area. The move comes 21 years after Tokyo and Washington agreed to return the air station land in the city of Ginowan to Japanese control.
May 15 will mark the 45th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa to Japan. The new military facility will be the first major U.S. base for the Japanese government to construct since the 1972 reversion. But forcefully constructing the base will not only damage the natural environment in the landfill area, but could also create a rift of opposition between the central government and Okinawa Prefecture that cannot be closed.
In a news conference at the Okinawa Prefectural Government headquarters, an angered Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga heavily criticized the government's move.
"It's unforgivable that the Okinawa Defense Bureau forcefully went ahead with shore protection work without heeding the prefecture's request to halt construction," he said.
After the Japanese and U.S. governments reached an agreement in 1996 to return the land occupied by U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Japanese control, the base relocation plan took various twists and turns. The second administration formed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2012, however, took the line of forcefully relocating the base to the Henoko area, saying that this was the "only solution." In December 2013, then Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima granted permission for landfill work to begin off the Henoko coast. With the launch of construction on April 25, the government has crossed a line that successive administrations of the past had not been able to cross.
Read the full story at The Mainichi