Leader of citizens’ opposition to homeporting of U.S. nuclear carrier runs in Yokosuka mayoral election

Japan Press Weekly

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Leader of citizens’ opposition to homeporting of U.S. nuclear carrier runs in Yokosuka mayoral election

Lawyer Goto Masahiko, who is a leader of a citizens’ campaign against the use of Yokosuka Port as the homeport for a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is a progressive candidate in the June 28 mayoral election in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

In the election campaign, he is calling for the homeporting status to be discontinued and for the living conditions of residents to be improved.

The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington entered the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base in September 2008 in disregard of strong opposition and widespread concerns about the deployment.

As a co-chair of a citizens’ association demanding a referendum on the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier’s homeporting issue, Goto has twice led a signature collection campaign, in 2006 and 2008, to petition the city assembly for a referendum. In 2008, the association collected more than 50,000 signatures, or about one-seventh of the city’s number of eligible voters, but the conservative-dominated assembly rejected the request.

Goto’s opponent is the incumbent mayor, Kabaya Ryoichi, who in June 2006 reneged on his election promise and agreed to the deployment of the nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier at Yokosuka. Kabaya is seeking a second term.

Many Yokosuka citizens have recently been angered by two recent revelations. One is that Japan and the United States had made “secret arrangements” to make it possible for the United States to bring in nuclear weapons on warships or airplanes. The other is that the U.S. forces had carried out reactor-related repair work resulting in radioactive leaks, despite the U.S. promise that no such repair work would take place.

Citizens cannot but voice their anxieties over possible accidents on the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the port.

Another major issue in the election is the city government’s wasteful spending of tax money to assist major corporations and undermine citizens’ living standards.

The Kabaya administration has paid a total of 417 million yen over the past five years as subsidies to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s Oppama Plant in the city.

The city issued 3,490 short-term certificates to families that are in arrears with their payments on the national health insurance tax. The number is the third largest among all municipalities in Kanagawa Prefecture. The certificate, unlike the health insurance, guarantees these households, whose national health insurance cards were invalidated, to be paid for 70 percent of medical treatment costs only after they resumed their payments of the health insurance tax.

What’s worse, Kabaya has proposed privatizing Yokosuka City Hospital, which was approved by the city assembly. Citizens are very concerned about the possible closure of the city-run hospital or some of departments.

Although 1,894 elderly people are on waiting lists for admission to affordable long-term nursing homes with relatively low payments, the city is planning to construct such nursing homes with only 300 rooms available.

A shortage of child care facilities is also serious in Yokosuka. Goto in his election platform promises to build more child care centers so that working mothers can go to work without unnecessary anxieties for their children.

- Akahata, June 13, 14, 2009