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Okinawa's local district heads say 'No' to new U.S. base plan

Thirteen heads of residential districts in Okinawa's Nago City held a meeting on November 7 and agreed that every district will adopt a resolution rejecting the plan to construct a state-of-the-art U.S. air base in the city as the site of relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station.

These districts are near the U.S. Marine Corps' Camp Schwab, part of which was chosen as the new base site at the recent meeting of the Japan-U.S. Security Consultative Committee.

So far, of the 13 districts, three, which are near the base, have adopted resolutions opposing the new base construction, although they had accepted the previous plan to construct an on-sea air base off Nago. They stated their rejection when they met with Kitahara Iwao, Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA) director general.

Tabata Kazushige, chair of the association of the districts, said, "The new air base, if constructed, will increase noise pollution, so we are opposed to the relocation plan."

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Okinawa Prefectural Governor Inamine Keiichi on November 7 met with Foreign Minister Aso Taro and Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro in Tokyo, and demanded that the Japanese and U.S. governments' new base plan be withdrawn.

Kanagawa Prefectural Governor Matsuzawa Shigefumi on the same day held talks with the foreign and defense ministers and requested that the Japan-U.S. agreement on deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the U.S. Navy Yokosuka Base be retracted. Matsuzawa emphasized that the realignment plan of U.S. forces in Japan will only shift heavier burdens onto the prefecture, which is absolutely unacceptable. -- Akahata, November 8, 2005