Okinawa Struggling to Block U.S. Military Base Construction

Naha, Okinawa Pref., Dec. 13 (Jiji Press)--Okinawa Prefecture is still struggling to block a Japanese government plan to build a new U.S. military base in the southern prefecture, two years after landfill work started at a construction site. The landfill work "can still be stopped at this stage," Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki told a press conference on Thursday, noting that the amount of soil dumped has represented only 3.8 pct of the total. But there has been steady progress in the landfill work that began in December 2018 as part of a broader project to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal district in Nago. In a 39-hectare section off the coast of Henoko, the government completed landfill work for 6 hectares in September. For the remaining 33 hectares, some 60 pct of the necessary amount of soil has been dumped. "Work has been progressing steadily," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a press conference on Friday. Okinawa last year filed a series of lawsuits against the government to block the project, but has lost all of them. A prefectural assembly member from the Liberal Democratic Party, who supports the relocation project, criticized the prefecture's actions as "wasting residents' tax money." Tamaki's proposal that Okinawa and the Japanese and U.S. governments hold three-way talks to resolve the standoff has gone nowhere. His plan to travel across Japan to rally support to block the project has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic. He sees an opportunity in the existence of soft ground at the construction site to make a breakthrough. In April, the Defense Ministry asked Okinawa for approval of ground reinforcement work. Okinawa plans to thoroughly examine the application and is even considering the possibility of rejecting it. The prefecture is unlikely to respond to the application until next year. It is "preparing to make hundreds of questions to the government," a senior prefectural official said. But many view the prefecture's such tactics as nothing but buying time. "We have only a few options on hand," an aide to the governor said. "We have no choice but to consider effective ways while waiting for the wind to change by forcing a delay in the construction work." END