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| Marine Corps Air Station Futenma (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Shannon Tiezzi
Governor Takeshi Onaga makes good on a promise to exhaust every means to halt the base construction.
The Okinawa basing issue is officially back in the spotlight, as prefectural governor Takeshi Onaga revoked the local government’s permission for construction on a new U.S. base in Henoko.
Onaga was elected late last year after promising to do his utmost to halt the construction a new base, which is designed to replace the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma. In September, after a month of talks between the local government and Tokyo went nowhere, Onaga announced that he was moving to rescind the permission his predecessor, Hirokazu Nakaima, had granted the central government for land reclamation at the new base site. A committee tasked by Onaga with examining the original permission found that the approval process had “legal defects.”
Now it’s official: Onaga has revoked the permission, which will likely set up a string of legal battles between the local and central governments. Tokyo has pledged to complete the Henoko base construction, and will likely seek to have the courts overturn Onaga’s move to rescind permission for construction.
“The Defense Ministry finds that there was no legal flaw with the reclamation permit and our position remains the same: Governor Onaga’s revocation measure is illegal,” Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, said.
Read the full story at The Diplomat