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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk calls at civil port in Hokkaido

The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk accompanied by the Aegis cruiser Cowpens, part of the U.S. 7th Fleet homeported at Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture, on July 1 called at civil Otaru Port in Otaru City in Hokkaido. They will stay there for five days.

It is the third time (the first in six years) that a U.S. carrier entered the civil port. The U.S. carried out the port call ignoring Otaru City government's request for a reconsideration of the visit and defying citizens' protests.

The Otaru Liaison Association against U.S. Aircraft Carrier's Port Calls on the same day held a protest rally at the pier.

Yamashita Tadataka of the Hokkaido Action Committee for Abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty said, "U.S. aircraft carriers' entry into Japanese civil ports is aimed at arrogantly showing how the U.S. and Japan have tightened their military integration. The Otaru City government should have rejected the port call request because the municipality is authorized to have full control of the civil port."

Participants in the rally shouted, "We reject turning Otaru Port into a port for war!" Japanese Communist Party members of the Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly and the Otaru City Assembly attended the rally.
- Akahata, July 2, 2006