Residents and JCP urge mayor to oppose plan for U.S. military housing units

Residents of Yokohama City together with Japanese Communist Party members on October 22 requested Yokohama Mayor Nakata Hiroshi to call for the four U.S. military facilities the U.S. promised to return to the city to be returned without condition.

They also asked the mayor to oppose the plan to build more U.S. military housing units that the U.S. Forces demanded as a precondition for the return of the base sites.

Last July, the central government and the U.S. Forces agreed on a return to Japan of four U.S. military facility sites in exchange for the construction of an additional 800 military housing units in the U.S. Navy Ikego residential area that stretches between Yokohama and Zushi city.

Tamura Noboru, secretary-general of the Kanazawa Ward Progressive Forum for Peace and Democracy (Kakushinkon), expressed the firm opposition of the residents to the construction plan. Residents have long been calling for the land of the Ikego district to be returned.

The protesters handed a city official 1,209 signatures expressing opposition to the construction plan. (end)