Abe wins Okinawa approval for US base
Print Edition
Okinawa governor yesterday approved a controversial plan to relocate a US air base to a less populous part of the southern island, but said he would keep pressing to move the base off the island altogether.
The nod from Okinawa, long a reluctant host to the bulk of US military forces in Japan, is an achievement for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has promised a more robust military and tighter security ties with the United States amid escalating tension with China.
Skeptics, however, said it remained far from clear whether the relocation — stalled since the move was first agreed by Washington and Tokyo in 1996 — would actually take place given persistent opposition from Okinawa residents, many of whom associate the US bases with crime, pollution and noise.
The approval came a day after Abe visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, seen in parts of Asia as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism, infuriating China and South Korea, and prompting concern from the United States about deteriorating ties between the Asian neighbors.
Okinawa Governor Hirokazu Nakaima told a news conference that he had approved a central government request for a landfill project at the new site, on the Henoko coast near the town of Nago.
His approval for that project, required by law and a first step to building the replacement facility, was the last procedural barrier to eventually replace the US Marines Futenma air base in the crowded town of Ginowan.
“The government has recently met our requests in compiling a plan to reinvigorate Okinawa. We felt that the Abe government’s regard for Okinawa is higher than any previous governments’,” Nakaima said.
The governor, however, added that he still believed the quickest way to relocate the Futenma air base would be to move it to an existing facility with runways outside Okinawa.
About 2,000 people gathered in front of the Okinawa government building to protest against Nakaima’s decision, with a few hundred of them staging a sit-in at the lobby of the office building, Jiji news agency said.
Okinawa was occupied by the United States after Japan’s defeat in World War II until 1972.
In a statement yesterday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel welcomed the approval of the landfill permit, and said that the Pentagon “remains committed to working with the government of Japan to build a strong and sustainable US military presence with less impact on the people of Okinawa.”
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